


Just a Touch of Magic

by BLMB, empurple1113



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Shall We Date?: Obey Me!
Genre: 80's Pop Culture, Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Harry Potter Setting, Alternate Universe - Hogwarts, Awkward Romance, Childhood Friends, Crossover, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Eventual Romance, F/M, Family Feels, Family Issues, Fluff and Angst, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hogwarts Third Year, M/M, Muggle Culture, Slow Romance
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-29
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-07 23:54:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 38,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26716348
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BLMB/pseuds/BLMB, https://archiveofourown.org/users/empurple1113/pseuds/empurple1113
Summary: It had been two years since they began at Hogwarts, and the surprises just keep on coming. It was unusually sunny on that day, and in the following evening, the moon was so bright, it made the sky a feast to the eyes. What was it about that room behind the Vanished Stairs on the fifth floor corridor that was just alluring, despite the low temperatures it was exuding? A Harry Potter AU with the characters from Obey Me! This follows a revised timeline of Hogwarts Mystery.Disclaimer: uses mixed POVs, as well as original character names. Rated T+, and featuring younger versions of all seven brothers and more.
Relationships: Asmodeus & Solomon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!), Leviathan (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s), Lucifer (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Original Female Character(s), Mammon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)/Nymphadora Tonks, Satan/Simeon (Shall We Date?: Obey Me!)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 19





	1. At the Beginning

Huh, it was surprisingly sunny when my moms and I got to King’s Cross station that day. My parents, being the ever-supportive and loving people they were, didn’t want me to commute alone all the way to the station. I mean… that was normal, I guess, if I was still in first year or second year, but I was in my third year now. “I’m finally a teenager, Moms!” I’d tell them. Sure, it had only been a few months since I turned 13, but it's not like I didn't already commute to other train stations anyway. 

Still, they’d insist. I was thinking maybe it was more of the sentimentality that they’d get to see me off as I began my next year in Hogwarts, or maybe they just missed heading to the station themselves when they’d go to school then? Either way, I’d have to ask them that.

“Mom?” I said, looking back at them. They had their arms wrapped around one another, as they walked behind me pushing my trolley. They both looked really sweet, to be honest, though it wasn't something I'd audibly admit to them. Their relationship with one another consisted of love, respect, understanding… but most of all, fun. I'm sure there were plenty other factors to what they have that I wasn't privy to, but they were still quite a pair. They were definitely a force to be reckoned with, especially when I had to ask permission to things. If you thought asking ONE mom when you wanted to do something was hard, just think about having to go to TWO of them instead. Difficult was an understatement, I could tell you as much. 

"Yes, dear?" one of them replied, squeezing the other’s arm and eyes now on me.

"Why do you guys keep wanting to accompany me on my first day? I mean… It's not like something strange is going to happen, especially since all I'd have to do is get to the platform and into the train. I'm meeting Lysa on the platform, and we're bound to find Levi and Mammon somewhere on the train, so I won't be alone at any point. Why do you keep wanting to come along?" I hoped my question wasn't phrased too strongly. It's just that I was genuinely curious why they kept wanting to come along, plus the train wouldn't be leaving any time soon anyway, so might as well have asked it, right?

One of them raised their eyebrows in amusement. "Hm… Selene, looks like our rebellious teenager here is embarrassed to have us come along," she joked. 

My other mom played along, pretending to clutch her heart in hurt. "Oh Merlin, I know, Cait! It's almost as if we _didn't_ raise her all these years! Where on earth did we go wrong?!"

I shook my head. "Moooooom, for _reall!_ This is a serious question!" I said, pouting. "I should at least know why you're coming along. And _no,_ I'm _not_ embarrassed by both of you!" Well, to be fair, I was partially lying. I kind of found it embarrassing that I still had someone along with me while on the way to the platform, but then again, it's not like I was the _only_ one whose parents were with them. I guess it meant that I was fine with them coming… but at the same time, not really? Let's call it a 50-50 situation… or was it more 70-30, leaning more towards embarrassment? 

"Your insistence with wanting to know why we're coming along says otherwise, dear one." 

Damn, there were times when it sucked to have parents who knew you better than you did yourself. I was about to make another reply to defend myself, because the least I could have had was dignity with this conversation, but my mom continued, "Besides, I want to see Alicia's mother again. We may have all been together in Diagon Alley, but owls do _not_ give justice to seeing someone and talking to them in person. I'll have you know, the two of us are -- "

"-- the best of friends." my other mom and I continued for her. 

"Yes, love, you only mention it _every_ single time we all see each other. I'm sure the whole world knows that by now."

"And is there something _wrong_ with expressing my gratitude and appreciation for my dear friend? Is this jealousy I'm sensing, Cait?"

My mom rolled her eyes in response. "Yes, it's absolutely jealousy, mhmm." She leaned in close. "Ah, who am I kidding, of course I'm not jealous. You look cute whenever you talk about her. Technically, I'm getting all the upperhand in this because I get to see you look even cuter than you already are."

Oh my gods, they were having a _moment_ right in front of me. Dear Merlin. I mean… again, I found this cute, but in the middle of King's Cross station was not exactly the place for them to go full-on lovey-dovey mode. "Um, moms? I'm right here…" 

"Hmmm? Ah yes, your question, kiddo! Your mom's right. One of the reasons we want to go with you is because it gives her a chance to see Alicia's mom again. Another one of the reasons is because we kind of miss Hogwarts ourselves. No, it doesn't mean we want to go back there and relieve all the schooling we did, but we miss all the fun and good times we shared -- the memories we created there, not having to worry about work and just thinking about school alone… Oh, don't get me started on the food!" 

"What your mother is trying to say, dear, is that seeing you off every year kind of makes us feel like we're there with you. Call it nostalgia, if you will. We're able to reminisce and remember what has come and gone when we accompany you, and we're just so happy that you get to make your own memories now too."

I smiled. I was kind of right, then. It was definitely the sentimentality and the nostalgia that brought them along with me every year so far. Although, I would also appreciate it very much if they didn't, but it is what it is. That's not something I'd want to deprive them of. Something that was said did get me thinking, though. _Nostalgia_. It's a funny feeling, isn't it? You're just so used to doing what you have to do and thinking of what comes immediately after. You think about the here and the now, and what might happen in the future, but the feeling hits differently once it's all over. It's kind of like Muggle schooling. While it's generally not something I actively miss, ballpens just feel differently than quills. 

Of course, it's not something that would make me as nostalgic as my moms wanting to relive their memories, but I can totally understand the feeling of missing something and wanting to get back to it. 

Just then, a loud _meeeeeeooooow_ broke my chain of thought, and it hit me that three of us must've been standing and talking too long that my cat began feeling bored. I turned to face my cat who was sitting calmly in her cage. "Hey now, Kitty, we weren't standing _that_ long. We're almost there!" 

Shaking my head, I pushed my trolley once more until we reached Platform 9 ¾. I know it was my third time going through the platform, but I can't help but feel a bit weird every time I actually go _through_ it, if you know what I mean. It's not like you can feel the concrete of the platform as you go through, no, that wasn't the case. It's just… the disparity of having to go through something that looked seemingly solid always got to me. It felt a bit odd, even if I knew there was definitely something across it. 

"You ready, dear?" one of my moms said. 

"Yup!” Well, not _completely_ ready, because it still feels odd going through the platform. Sort of ready enough, I guess? I looked down at the feline in the cage I had with me, "How about you, Kitty? Ready to go through?" I asked my cat, calmly purring in her cage again. "I guess that means yes. Well, here goes!"

I sped through the platform with my moms right behind me. Once we were through, the familiar hum of the train could be heard, as well as the usual cacophony that was all of the students fumbling with their things and attempting to get into the train. Instinctively, I began looking around the platform for my best friend. I was almost positive she was already here. She and her mom were _always_ early for everything. 

"Lysa? LYSA?" It felt a bit idiotic, yelling someone's name over the herd of all people in the train station, but I had to try. 

"Char! I'm over here!" I grinned. I knew she was somewhere nearby. I could faintly see her head among the crowd, along with the sound of her hellhound (long story, but we'll get to sharing that soon) barking at passersby. Eventually, the three of us found our way to them. Leaving my trolley with my moms momentarily, I quickly enveloped my best friend in a hug. 

Call it cliche, but I really missed her. True, we saw each other last week, but we didn't really have time to catch up on all the summer adventures (if you could call it that) we may have had. I know we had the rest of the train ride to talk to one another, but that was precisely what I missed. Not just talking to her, but her presence too, really. 

"I've missed you so much!" I said, after we finished our hug, “We definitely needed more time.” 

She let out a satisfied sigh, followed by a giggle, then gave my arms a squeeze, “I can’t believe I just saw you last week. It still felt like ages!” She leaned over her shoulder to see her mother sharing a similar embrace to my moms, making her giggle again before she turned to me, “I wanna ask about your summer, but maybe we could talk about that on the train. Oh!” her eyes lit up like she just remembered something, “I saw Mammon when mom and I got here: he was with his two youngest brothers.”

“Oh, Levi did mention that his twin brothers were starting Hogwarts today,” I nodded in agreement, “I guess we’ll meet them on the train too, huh?” It always made me wonder what their family dynamic was like. Being an only-child had its pros and cons. While there wasn't any worry about having your siblings annoy you or bother you, there was that loneliness sometimes when you realize you didn't have anyone else with you but your parents. I mean… sure, that's what friends and other relatives were for, but it just wasn't the same as having your own sibling, you know? 

Still, though, having six other siblings? That must've been a struggle. Although, in one of the owls I exchanged with Levi over summer, I did ask him what it was like to have that many people around him or to constantly have someone there with him. He said that normally, it wasn't too bad, as long as none of them messed with his things. It was understandable, really, considering his vast cassette and VHS collections. If only _one_ of them gets messed up or falls over? _Yikes._ I didn't even want to think about that. 

It also made me wonder how well they got along with one another. Sure, some of them had similar age gaps, but I recall it being mentioned to Lysa and I that they boys seemed to have different mothers. Was this something that they sometimes thought about or mulled over? Was it a cause of any arguments? Was it something that didn't bother them at all? 

It obviously wasn't something that was in my place to ask, so I don't think I ever would, but it always made me think about how they were as a family and how they were as siblings and as brothers. 

There was a loud whistling from the train that made Lysa jump, and I saw her amber eyes glance back at our parents, before she pulled my wrist, turned to the side, and leaned in to whisper, “Tonks said she kept the parchment,” her face looked a little worried, “And it had some pretty powerful magic, but wasn’t any dark sort. She sent me an owl after we went to Diagon Alley last week.” 

“Just because it’s not dark magic doesn’t mean it’s safe to use,” I mused, frowning, “But I mean this is _Tonks_ we’re talking about, and-” 

I stopped mid-sentence when I realized that there had been someone staring long and hard at us: across the platform, with his coat perfectly tailored to his lean build, eyes a shade of steel grey and an unmistakable blank expression. It was Lucifer. 

When Lysa noticed this, she followed my gaze, and upon catching sight of him, I watched how a faint shade of pink rose in her sun-kissed skin. I doubt she even noticed that he was joined by two of his younger brothers, and they were _always_ doing something like this. Lysa and Lucifer, I mean. They could barely keep their eyes off each other. All they did was stare at each other like this, over and over again, but were constantly at each other’s throats if they were given a chance. It was getting exhausting watching them, honestly.

_Oh here we go._

“Darling?” 

Maria, Lysa’s mother, called for her, but she didn’t seem to budge. This made all our moms turn to the direction of her gaze, “Who’s that, deary?”

“Nobody.” 

I could tell she replied a little too quickly, making me snort, and making our mothers glance at each other, “Actually, he’s Mammon and Levi’s older brother, but _sure_ Lysa. It’s _nobody._ ” 

The flush in her cheeks was deepening, and I could tell by Auntie Maria’s chuckle that she, my mothers and I were sharing the same thoughts, but Lysa tore her gaze and finally looked back at me, “It’s just Lucifer.”

“Mhm, sure it is,” I said with a knowing grin that made her pout, “I’m sure he was also _just_ Lucifer when you saw him dueling and he-” 

“Char!”

Our moms all giggled simultaneously and she buried her head in her hands. In the trolley beside her, the black hellhound began to howl and I watched my best friend bring down a hand to the dog, who licked at her comfortingly, “I’m okay, Cerbie, really.” 

Before I could say anything regarding her overgrown dog, I saw a fluff of white hair sneak behind her, and a pair of hands covered Lysa’s eyes, “Guess who!”

“Mammon, what’re you doing?!” 

“Heya, Auntie ‘Ria!” He brought his hands down to embrace Lysa by the waist, and I watched as her mom gave the boy a wave. I wasn’t really surprised, seeing as he was likely the only boy that she would ever mention comfortably around her mother. I mean, I have probably talked non-stop about Levi at one point or another too during this summer. The two are like family to us, at this point.

Releasing her, Mammon turned to both of us, his sapphire eyes sparkling with its usual mischief, “Hey, Levi’s saved us a compartment. The train’s leaving in seven minutes, so you better say good-bye.” 

The way Mammon was holding her hand was excitable, and maybe even questionable. But Lysa was affectionate that way, and she never really minded. Heck, she’d hold hands with Professor McGonagall if the professor asked. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Lucifer scoff, before boarding the train on the other end with two of his younger brothers. 

"So I guess it's time we said our goodbyes now, huh?" one of my moms prompted. Without thinking, I gave them both one long hug. I wasn't really the type to be that affectionate, but today was a special day. That, and I legitimately was going to miss them. 

"I'll miss you both so much." I said, squeezing them tight. 

They hugged me back. "We'll be missing you loads too, kiddo. Christmas will be here before you know it. While I know this isn't something you'd readily admit that you like coming back to, just thought I'd remind you," my mom said with a twinkle in her eye. 

"Oh, and as per usual, don't forget to make Slytherin proud. You were sorted there for a reason. Always make it count." She winked. 

"I know I wasn't sorted there myself, dear, but I'm sure you'd make us proud, regardless."

Damn it. Why did they have to be _extra_ cheesy today? This was not helping me contain my tears or the fact that I'd be missing them immensely. _It's okay, Char. You got this. Deep breaths._ I squeezed them both one last time. "Love you lots."

Across us, Auntie Maria had her arms around Lysa’s broad shoulders, kissing the crown of her head before pulling away and dropping something in her coat’s front pocket. 

“I’m gonna miss you, mom,” Lysa had said, to which her mother reciprocated with another kiss to the forehead. 

She had a few tears in her eyes when she bade my best friend goodbye, and almost as though to comfort her, Mammon hung an arm around Lysa’s shoulders, waving as though she was his mother too.

Lysa, though getting used to these good-byes, was more teary-eyed than she usually was. I made a mental note to ask her how she was doing later on. 

When we boarded the train, there were two new faces in the compartment with us, and Levi’s eyes lit up upon seeing me, “C-Char!” I could feel my cheeks flushing a deep shade of red. My heart had skipped a beat too. Though it was something that I wouldn't outwardly say, Levi was cute in a very endearing and dorky way. It's what I liked about him. 

_Why the hell am I thinking of this, though? Get your thoughts together, Char!_

“You were all he could talk about, mind you,” Mammon teased as he ushered us in. I felt my cheeks blush even more, and I'm not sure if I was seeing things, but I'm almost positive Levi was turning red too. Then again, I could've just been imagining all that. 

I watched as Lysa sat next to their ginger-haired brother, which left me to take the seat next to Levi. Mammon closed the compartment door, and propped himself next to Lysa, shortly before burying his head into her shoulders with a long sigh, “Ahh, I missed this!” 

I didn’t want to admit it out loud, but honestly, I did too. 

I missed this company - a _lot_ . Which brings me to what you might be thinking about: how _exactly_ did we all end up here, and how did this happen? 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everybody! Thank you for reading this far. <3 This was an idea we've had for awhile now, and we're so glad to finally share it with all of you. ^^ We definitely enjoyed creating this piece from two things that have been meaningful to the both of us. We hope that (even if we don't update as often as we would want) you will all look forward to the tale we have in store for you! :)
> 
> ~ BLMB & empurple1113


	2. Catching up on the Uneventful Two Years - Part One

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Char and Lysa begin their journey, but just who are these boys they stumbled into? What is magic, anyway? 
> 
> And where will they be finally learning it?

It all started when my moms told me I was a witch. Not like… the green faced, pointed nose, boils-on-the-face kinda witch. Just a witch. Apparently the magical kind that didn't require becoming green or any other color, for that matter.

It happened around summer before Muggle school was meant to start that year. I had accidentally broken one of my parents' precious vases. Yes, I know what you're thinking, "How in the world does breaking a vase equate to you being magical, Char?" Well, let me tell you this. I didn't exactly break it in a conventional manner. You'd think I would've bumped into it and broken it or accidentally pushed it off the table, right? Ha, that was the _normal_ way of breaking a vase. 

I, on the other hand, _exploded_ it. As in… the vase spontaneously combusted in an explosion kinda thing. It was _terrifying._

I was listening to my Walkman that day, and a particularly good song was playing. I was jamming my way around the house, as one would do while listening to _Karma Chameleon._ I mean, who _didn't_ jam to that song, right? While jamming to my music, I'd often have this tendency of air-guitaring, air-drumming, and singing my way through the song and pointing at different objects at home. (I was my own band, okay? Don't judge.) My parents weren't home anyway, so might as well have as much fun as I could on my own. 

I was air-guitaring to the bridge already, and I was making my way around the living room, pointing at whatever object I could at the end of each line. As I sang the second _Every day is like survival. You're my lover, not my rival,_ I pointed at a random vase. Just as I did that, however, the vase literally exploded right in front of me. Like, it went _kaboom_ the moment I pointed to it. 

There were _so_ many things that came to mind immediately after I saw it happen. One, **_what the actual heck_?**How the hell did I make a vase explode just by pointing at it? That didn't make any sense! I wasn't even _close_ to knocking it over to break it, so how the hell did I manage to make it _explode,_ just like that? Two, oh my _goodness,_ my parents were going to **kill** me. The vase was one of their prized possessions from a trip they both went to some years back, and I didn't even know how to explain to them how I broke it. Did I even break it, if I wasn't the one who touched it? I have absolutely no idea. Geez, I could already imagine how the conversation would go. 

"Um, moms… I accidentally broke your vase." 

"You-- WHAT? What in the world happened? How did you break it?"

"I… um… I didn't break it. It just… blew up on its own accord. I swear I had nothing to do with it! I wasn't even near it!" 

Then they'd probably go on about how irresponsible I was, maybe to the point of confiscating my Walkman, I don't know. It was a really valuable vase to them, and I broke it just like that out of nowhere. They'd be _seething._

You bet I was stunned when they came home from work, I explained to them what had happened, and they were both _ecstatic._ They both had these huge grins on their faces, and I couldn't for the life of me understand why. Were they happy I had broken their vase? Was doing so something they expected all along from me? I didn't understand. How the hell was what I did _good?_

"We've only been waiting for _forever_ , kiddo!" My mom, Caitlin (though she went by Cait, usually), had exclaimed. 

"Wait, what? You've been waiting for me… to break your vase…?" I was very confused. What in the world were they waiting for, and _what did it have to do with the vase exploding?_

"What your mom is trying to say, dear, is that we've been waiting for you to display your magical ability." My other mom, Selene, had explained. "You see, children born of Wizarding descent more often than not display magical ability. Since both your mother and I have magic, we believed you would as well. It was only a matter of time before your magic showed up."

"And just in time too! Hogwarts' school year begins in September, so we have a good amount of time to get you prepared for everything. Gosh, I'm so excited, Selene! Our kid's going to Hogwarts! I bet you she's going to be sorted to Slytherin too," Mom-Cait, said excitedly.

Mom-Selene raised an eyebrow at her. "Now, now, don't get ahead of yourself. Much as I want her to be in Ravenclaw like me, I have a feeling she could also be considered for Hufflepuff. Don't you think?"  
  
"Hmmm, good point, love. Yeah, it'll probably come down to either Slytherin or Hufflepuff for her."

I had way too many questions going on in my head at that moment? Magic? Wizarding descent? Hogwarts? Sorting? _Talk about an information overload._ This was even more stressful to my brain than all the difficult fraction talk when we had Math. And I have always hated fractions, especially converting them - but this was different. Everything felt so overwhelming. I had absolutely no idea what they were talking about.. 

"Um, Moms? Wait… What's happening? What's going on? I'm not understanding _a thing_."

My parents stopped talking when they realized my confusion. They looked at each other and nodded, coming to a mental agreement of sorts. "All right, kiddo. I think it's time we all sat together and had the talk."

My eyes widened. "The… talk? Please don't tell me you're going to explain how babies were born. They already explained in Health class, I don't need more--"

"No no, not **_that_ ** talk, dear, don't worry," Mom-Selene had replied. She ushered the three of us to the dining area, so we could all have the _talk._ Whatever that was meant to be. "Okay, so I'm not sure if this may come as a shock to you, Char, but magic is real -- as real as the hair on your head and as real as both of us talking to you right now. By magic, we don't mean the usual magic tricks you can see by 'magicians' in children's parties. That's all they are, magic _tricks._

"The kind of magic we're talking about is the supernatural kind. It can range from elemental things like creating a fire or water, to spell-related things like Charms, Hexes, and Jinxes, and so much more. You can use spells to either help someone or harm them."

"So you're saying the three of us… are magicians? We can do magic?"

"Well, yes and no. We can do magic, yes, but we're not called magicians. Boys are wizards, and girls are witches. That means you're a witch, dear."

I blinked. "I'm… a witch?” I drew a deep breath here. “Wow, that's a lot to take in, Moms."

Mom-Cait then laughed. "To be honest, kiddo, you're taking it better than I did when I was your age. I freaked out when my mom told me, then locked myself in my room. I thought she was kidding and had gone completely bonkers!"

"I mean… it's not that I think both of you are lying to me or anything," I started, "it's just that… I find it a bit hard to believe? We went from magic tricks to actual spells, and I'm not entirely sure I can take it all in."

Mom-Selene had her head tilted while I said all this. Did she find my confusion amusing? Then again, if you think about it, you can't entirely blame me for being doubtful or for not being all too accepting of all this, because this is an _entire_ worldview that was kept from me for over eleven years. _Why only tell this to me now? Why was it kept from me? How do I know they weren't faking it or making stuff up just to justify my breaking their vase?_ Then again, the more I thought about it, the more unlikely it was the latter, because had it not been for this whole magic mumbo jumbo, they would _certainly_ be **_furious_ ** about their vase. 

"Do you want us to prove it to you, dear?"

"I-- that wasn't what I meant, Mom, I didn't--"  
  
"Oh, Char, I'm not sure you realize this, but your eyes speak volumes sometimes, and with how long we've known you, I should know by now when you want things to be proven before you believe them. I commend that attitude of yours. It will certainly help you while you attend Hogwarts. Gullibility, on the other hand, would not," she said as she stroked my face. "Well, Cait, I guess it's time to give a 'show' then, huh?"

Mom-Cait nodded in agreement, then both of them proceeded to get something from within their coats. It was a thin piece of wood, and it made me wonder how taking that out would make a show, but okay… I wasn't going to question them. "All right, kiddo, so these are our wands," I made an _Ooooohhhhh_ in my head as the pieces of my confused head puzzle were coming together little by little, "and we use them to perform magic. Your mother and I will perform one spell each. If you still don't believe us after that, then I might just have to disown you," she said jokingly. 

"Accio briefcase!" Mom-Selene said, as she traced an upside down U with her wand. Just like that, her briefcase which was _all_ the way in the living room flew straight to her. She caught it deftly, and gestured to Mom-Cait. "Your turn, love."

"No fair, I wanted to do Accio!" she whined. "Also, you were _totally_ showing off just then, but I absolutely loved that," she said, planting a kiss on my other mom's cheek. They were both so cute, I swear. 

She then made a swishing and flicking motion with her wand -- at least, it looked like a swish and a flick? -- as she pointed at Mom-Selene's briefcase on the floor. "Wingardium Leviosa!" Just then, the briefcase began levitating from the ground. It flew for a few seconds before she made it land. 

I gasped. I wasn't sure what I was more surprised with -- the briefcase flying across the room or flying from the ground. I had so many thoughts in mind, but one thing was for sure. I couldn't deny it now. Without a doubt, magic was very much real, and apparently I performed some of it? 

"Whoah," was all I managed. I was too shocked for words.

"Look at that, Selene, it looks like we rendered her speechless. Which brings me to my next point -- even if you are a witch, and you have magic, this is still something you need to control. That's why you'll be going to Hogwarts! It'll help you hone your magic and make you the best witch you'll ever be." 

"It's where _we_ learned everything too, after all," Mom-Selene added. "That, and it's where your mother and I met and fell in love."

"Wait, **_WHAT_** _?!_ ” I didn’t know why I felt more upset about this than my being a witch being kept from me for my entire life so far, but it did. “You told me you guys met in High School and went to college together! I was living _another_ lie?!"

"Hey, hey, hold up, kiddo. We weren't _exactly_ lying. Technically, we did meet at the age that a Muggle -- that's the word for non-magic folk -- is supposed to go to High School, so that bit ain't wrong. Then we dated for the rest of our years at Hogwarts and after -- which is _also_ the same age as Muggle college.

"Just when I thought my headache couldn't get any worse, Moms…"

"Oh, don't worry, dear, we'll give you some more time to process this information. I know you have a _lot_ of questions. Why we only told you this now, what you'll be needing for school, what'll happen to your Muggle schooling -- we'll get to explaining _all_ of that to you. We'll break it to you little by little, though. We want to give you your own time to adjust. We don't want to force all the rest of these to you."

I swear, Mom-Selene had this mind-reading power sometimes, because she _totally_ took my thoughts out of my head. Did magic allow that too? I kind of doubted it, but I couldn't help wondering. I was thankful they both would give me time to think all of this through, because I don't think I could've handled everything otherwise. There was one thing that I kept thinking with all of this happening, however: how was I going to break the news to Lysa? 

_Were we going to be separated from the moment next school year started?_

I didn't want to linger on that thought.

It was about a few days later that we met each other for lunch while our mothers had gone shopping, and my stomach just kept churning the entire time. How was I going to break the news to her? How was I going to let her know that we wouldn't be seeing each other in school anymore, because I had to go to a magical school for kids like me? How would she react? There were so many things going on in my head, that I had barely eaten my lunch. 

Naturally, Lysa noticed this. "Hey, Char, what's up? You barely touched your food, which I find quite alarming." She laughed. Was it just me, though, or was there something different from the way she laughed? I sensed a slight hint of anxiety just then, but maybe that was also just my being paranoid about breaking the news to her. 

I couldn't take it anymore. I bit my lip. "Lysa, there's… there's something I have to tell you.”

There was something in her amber eyes that made me nervous, especially because she was usually confident, determined. Something in her voice faltered when her smile did, and she nodded at me solemnly, “I-I have something to tell you, too,” she started to say, “b-but you go on first, I don’t think you’d believe me but… yeah.”

I didn’t know where to start. There weren't exactly a lot that Muggle schools covered in these sorts of situations, and based on what my moms have said, Muggles pretty much think of us as a fairytale. Lysa loved all those fantasies and supernatural but… _Would she believe_ **_me_** _?_

“You know how we’d read stories about witches and stuff? Like cauldron and magic?” She nodded where I hesitated, and I could feel her tense before me, “Um... Mom says I’m one, apparently. Not the wicked witch, just…” Her expression changed here - was that _relief_ I sense? “...the magical witch... kind…” I wasn’t able to continue because the look on her face was something I couldn’t describe: she looked slightly confused, relieved and even… _worried?_

“W-Wait,” Here it comes. I tried to mentally prepare myself for her barrage of questions, “Y-You’re a witch?” she asked. “You’re a witch _too?_ ”

My eyes widened, “Too?” I asked. “Did you just say ‘too’?”

“Yes!” She exclaimed, a typical flood of warmth emanating from her entire being, “You’re a witch! I’m also a witch!” I watched her giggle, but the news left me appalled - what was this coincidence with both of us being witches? “Mom sat me down a few nights ago after a, um… an _accident_ at my bio-dad’s house. I shrunk the fence there, and, heh…” She clenched and unclenched her hand on a tissue, “She said that I need to go to a special school for magic.” 

“Let me guess,” I said with a small, wry grin, “Hogwarts?”

“Well, yes!” She threw her arms around me over the table, and I finally felt so relieved - so _free._ “I’m going to Hogwarts, September first, and we’re settling all my stuff in London next week.” She pulled away and held me firmly by the shoulders, “I… I was so worried we were going to be apart. I was scared that I was never going to see you again.” 

To be honest? _So was I._

But it seemed like we still had at least the rest of our schooling lives together. I heaved a sigh of relief. I should _really_ take up Mom-Selene's offer on the talk about what else they kept from me, because this was yet _another_ significant detail of my life that they had not mentioned to me. Who knew what other details I could be missing? 

We spent dinner at Lysa’s place that night, where our parents filled us in on more things about magic: the government, the general policies about under-aged wizardry, and of course, what we were allowed to bring to school since it was essentially a boarding school. We were in the middle of eating potatoes, rosemary chicken and the most lovely baked salmon when there was a tap-tap-tapping…

On the glass. _Was that an owl waving through a window?_

“Those should be your letters.” Auntie Maria said, and she opened their side-window to reveal two snowy-white owls. In each their beaks were envelopes: one labelled _Alicia Joan Elios_ , the other, _Charmagne Levana-Balfour_. We both looked at our list and our brows furrowed. 

“Mom…” Lysa said slowly, looking up, “Can we get all this in London?”

“Of course, dear~” Her mother said in a sing-song voice, “If you know where to go.” 

The inn we visited the following day was called the Leaky Cauldron - not a very discrete name, but I assumed no non-magic folks would be drawing near it. After passing through some back doors, we came to a place the adults called _Diagon Alley_. 

(“Is this a play on the word _diagonally_ , because the street isn’t straight?” Lysa asked me, making me chuckle.)

Together, we got our allowance from Gringotts, got our wands at Ollivanders, got our uniforms sorted out at Madam Malkin's, and finally settled down for ice-cream at Florean Fortescue while our parents battled others at a bookstore. To say it was a crazy past few days was an understatement. It was surprise after surprise after surprise. One thing was for sure, though, at least I wasn't going through this alone. I mean, obviously my parents would've been there to help me out either way, but I'm mostly thankful for the fact that my best friend was here with me, and I had someone by my side. I smiled. Sure, both our worlds have been turned upside down with everything going on, but at least we had each other.

“You know, it makes more sense to me now that I never see what mum had written in the bookstores,” Lysa said, enjoying her chocolate-and-rice crispies, “Even when she told me she was a writer, I’ve seen copies of her books at home, but never outside.” 

“And there they all are,” I pointed at the window of Flourish and Blotts, where some of the best-sellers were, including her mother’s novel series on a human falling in love with magical beings, “Here I thought she just had an active imagination.” 

We both shared a laugh.

The trip to King’s Cross station was more nerve-wracking than I thought it would be. For one thing, it was the first time I'd ever be away from my parents that long. My Muggle school wasn't a boarding school, so the longest time I've ever been away from home was for overnight school trips and such. Sure, I would be in good hands, but it just wasn't the same, you know? I was genuinely going to miss them -- all the laughter, all the jokes (which Mom-Cait is _rather_ fond of, if I may add), all their care, and yes, all their nagging. It was weird thinking I wouldn't be seeing them and experiencing that until Christmas, and it made my stomach churn. Although, this was something I would _never_ admit to them. 

To be honest, that wasn't the only reason my stomach was churning. There was the anxiety that I'd be in a new school and a new environment. I'd have to adjust once more, and deal with people 'concerned' about my having two mothers. I've learned to block it out over the years if my explanation to them wasn't enough, but having to go through that all over again? Definitely _not_ something I was looking forward to. Then again, my moms did tell me the Wizarding community was _way_ more accepting than the Muggle community regarding this, so I shouldn't be worried, but… Old habits die hard, okay? 

_Come on, Char, you can do this!_ I tried to tell myself. I mean, I was going to a _magical_ school, for crying out loud. Problems were bound to ensue, but wasn't that all part of the adventure and the thrill of being there anyway? I may have been nervous, but I couldn't help feeling excited too. 

"Get ready for the best years of your life, dear," Mom-Selene would say. I'm thankful my parents were there to calm me down. Sure, it wasn't the most effective means at that time, but there was a slight sense of comfort in knowing that we were all coming together with Lysa and Auntie Maria. On September 1st, we found that they were already sitting at a cafe in the station while waiting, and I embraced my best friend the moment I saw her again. 

As we walked, Lysa was reading our letters once over again, “Mom,” she began, “It says here that we’re supposed to head over to Platform 9 ¾ but… there are just platforms with whole numbers in here.”

“Well… Look there.” Mom-Selene pointed at a family ahead of us, with three boys running with their trolleys towards the barrier between platforms 9 and 10, and right before our eyes, they went right through.

“It’s… a hidden platform…” Lysa said slowly.

Before either of us could move, Auntie Maria playfully ran through the barrier with a giggle, saying, “Come on!”

I watched Lysa tense for a moment, before she glanced at me. This was one of those moments where we were still trying to assimilate the magic that was _actually_ happening around us. 

“Well?” Mom-Cait broke us from our staring contest, and ushered us forward. “Give it a bit of a run if you’re nervous!” 

I nodded, and then looked at Lysa who gripped the handles of her trolley tightly. She drew a deep breath, and I waited for her count. 

“One… two… three!” 

Together, we pushed our trolleys, and I shut my eyes, almost expecting to still hit the wall but when I heard the sounds of a whistling of the train, I opened my eyes in awe: right there above us read a sign that said 9 ¾ . This was it - this was the Hogwarts Express. There was no turning back now. This wasn't a dream that I would wake up from. This was all _actually_ happening. 

“Just in time.” Auntie Maria went over to Lysa, just as my moms approached me. 

"I guess it's time for us to say our goodbyes now, huh, kiddo?" Mom-Cait prompted. 

I nodded. I was nowhere near ready to say goodbye to them. A part of me wished we could all stay here in this moment, and to not leave one another. The other part of me knew that wasn't supposed to happen, but was also very ecstatic to know what comes next. 

"Are you still nervous, dear?" Mom-Selene had asked.

"Kinda… I just… Everything's gonna be so new again. I'm going to have to meet new people again. The classes too, Moms! I have absolutely no idea how I'm going to deal with that, considering I don't know _that_ much about things yet, and--"

"Char," she said, while putting her hands on my shoulders for me to try to relax, "You're overthinking this again, dear. As we told you, yes, there will be a learning curve. That's bound to happen. Despite that, you've always managed to surpass any struggles you've faced. I don't see what should stop you from overcoming yet another obstacle."

"And no, they wouldn't care less about you having two mothers. We've said it before, and we'll say it again, the Wizarding folk are _so_ much more accepting than Muggles in this regard. You don't need to worry," Mom-Cait added. 

"Besides," Mom-Selene said as she smiled, "you have Alicia with you. Both of you together are a force to be reckoned with. I'm sure that in spite of you two being in two different houses, you'd still find a way to succeed together. I've seen it with my own eyes over the years. Both of you may not have been in the same class, but your friendship withstood that. This isn't any different." 

I allowed myself a moment to breathe and relax. Mom-Selene was right. Yes, everything was going to be new, different, and probably not at all the same as Muggle school, but at least Lysa and I had each other. I was never going to be alone, in spite of different classes separating us. Or different houses, as my moms so firmly believe. 

"Speaking of houses, you _have_ to owl us the moment you find out yours. We _have_ to know, kiddo!" Mom-Cait said excitedly. 

My other mom raised an eyebrow at her. "You seem to be _so_ confident she'll end up in Slytherin, my love. I still believe she'll be in Hufflepuff."

"Well, _of course_ you do. That's why we placed our bets on those respective houses, isn't it?"

I blinked. "Moms, are both of you _gambling_ with one another for what my house will be?!"

They both grinned. "Yes, dear. We absolutely are."

I shook my head. It was amusing to think they weren't even going to _bother_ denying that. "What happens if I end up in Gryffindor or Ravenclaw?"

"Well, if you end up in Ravenclaw, that's still a win for me~" Mom-Selene replied. 

"If you're in Gryffindor, we'll have to decide our next course of action with that…" Mom-Cait said. "So let's hope it's neither of that, so that either of us wins something!" 

I hugged them both. "I'm going to miss both of you _so_ much, I can't even express it all right now."

My parents hugged me back. "We'll be missing you too, dear. So so much. Please don't forget to write to us. Just some updates here and there -- it doesn't have to be _everything_ you do or every day, for that matter. We just… We want to know how you're doing"

"I promise to write, I swear! Yes, that includes what house I'll be in," I said, laughing. "I love you both so much!"

"We love you too, kiddo. See you in three months?"

"See you both in three months," I said, giving them both a kiss and another hug before we went for the train.

Once we were in the train, Lysa was a couple of paces ahead of me, peering into compartments to see if there were any free ones we could occupy. She stopped in front of one on the left where I noticed a boy with wispy-white hair and a deck of cards in his hands, of all things. 

“Let’s try this one,” she looked back at me. “Everywhere else is full.” 

This made me a little uneasy - especially since we’d never met any Wizarding people away from each other - but my best friend had already aggressively opened the compartment door, slightly startling the boy before us, “Hey. Can we join you?” she asked. “We couldn’t find any other compartment.”

“Uh…” He looked at me, then back at Lysa, before nodding, “Sure.” 

She pulled in the cage of her tiny, black labrador before I went in with my black cat, Kitty. (Yes, I was _the_ best person when it came to giving names.) We sat next to each other, and the boy eyed the caged dog. 

“... Dogs are allowed?” He asked.

“Oh, this is a Hell-Hound.” Lysa replied with a smile, “It’s attached to me, so it’d be with me either way. My mum wrote to McGonagall for it.” ( _More on Lysa’s Hell-Hound later._ )

He offered a hand, “Mammon,” he said softly, “Mammon Liewen. Never seen you two before. Was it your first time on the platform?” 

“Yeah.” Lysa continued on the conversation, “I’m Alicia Elios and this is my best friend, Charmagne Levana. You can just call me Lysa, and she’s Char.”

I heaved a sigh of relief. It was in moments like these that I was thankful Lysa was the more people-person between us. Small talk and chatting with strangers was never _my_ thing. If it were up to me, I'd just be sitting awkwardly in a corner somewhere without wanting anyone to notice me. I'm not the best at making friends either, so I was glad she was taking the lead on this bit of the new-person-to-meet-ice-breaking-process.

Through most of the train ride, we learned that Mammon already saw the platform after sending their older brother to Hogwarts the year before. He had a brother who was in the same year as us, who had apparently gone into some other compartment, and Mammon lost him. They were usually together, too. It wasn’t until there was a scream a few compartments down, and some aggressively opening doors that Lysa and Mammon had to peer out only to find…

“...That’s my brother they’re throwin’ outta that compartment!” Mammon shouted, obviously alarmed.

“Well, we’ve gotta go help!” Lysa grabbed her wand and so did I, but Mammon froze, pulling Lysa’s jumper by the sleeve.

“W-Wait!” he said, “Those are third years! They’d-”

“Mammon, that’s your _brother_ ,” Lysa said sharply, “We’re doing this. Don’t you chicken out on us!” The blaze in her amber eyes were like fire. I felt that maybe she intimidated Mammon _just a smidge._

“M-Maybe I should call my brother?” He managed to choke after that, but I scowled at him.

“No time!”

There was laughter when we walked into the next cabin, with three boys standing and horsing around with each other, while a boy was on the floor, clutching a broken portable cassette player in his hands. I ached inside seeing it -- this was one of the lighter types too. I had a bigger, heavier version at home that I already love -- this one was _precious._

“Y-You broke it! You guys broke it!” he moaned, clutching the device to his chest. “This was my _treasure,_ and-”

“And _what,_ you Squib?” One of them jeered, dirty blond hair covering a wide forehead. “If you love those Muggles so much, why don’t you just join them?” 

_What in the world was a_ **_Squib_** _?_

Whatever it was, though, it clearly upset Mammon and the boy on the floor. I could _feel_ the tension. Mammon was clenching and unclenching his hands.

“I-I…” the boy stammered, looking embarrassed and turning bright red as more heads began to poke out of their compartments, “I’m a wizard!” 

“A wizard who can’t protect himself?” another boy, raven-haired and lanky, sneered, “That’s no wizard. That’s a _Squib_.”

He pointed his wand at the boy and before I could say anything, Lysa had cast a spell before me, something neither of us had done before: “ _Protego!”_

The spell dissipated upon contact. I glanced at my best friend, who gave me a shifty grin, “Standard Book of Spells, Chapter 2: Defense as a Weapon.” 

_Typical._ I thought, but Mammon yelled out in worry and brought me out of my thinking: “Levi!” 

“M-Mammon?” 

Lysa bent down and helped the boy up, and I could feel the rage rising within me. Lysa was usually the one who got into fights, that’s true. Playful banter and friendly sarcasm was okay. But something about hurting someone helpless didn’t sit well with me at all, or in any way. It was one thing to tease someone. It was another thing to joke with them. But to the point of _bullying_ and breaking their prized possessions? That was one big **_NO._ **I waited for Lysa to pull the boy -- Levi was his name, apparently? -- back a bit before I stepped forward, and Lysa stood by me.

“Three on one, and third years against a first year?” She started to say, eyebrows raised, “That’s definitely one way to be fair.” Her voice was the usual, playful tone she had - but I detected poison in it: _was that vengeance I hear in her voice?_

If there was one thing that I absolutely _hated,_ it was people who were bullies. It was something Lysa and I had a silent understanding about - if you had no reason to be nasty, _you get whatever’s coming,_ and believe me when I say they were about to get a butt-load of awful thrown right at them. 

I was suddenly thankful my parents did some practice duels in front of me sometime back. Something along the lines of, "You may not know how to do these spells just yet, but at least it'll give you some familiarity, Char!" Sure, both Lysa and I weren't entirely familiar with spells, but I sure as hell _knew_ this was time to use one. I could feel it in every fiber of my being. These bullies needed to be taught a bloody lesson. And a little voice told me that Lysa was thinking the **exact** same thing. 

Imitating what I saw Mom-Cait do, I gave my wand an upward flick and pointed it at the blond haired boy. " _Levicorpus!"_ I yelled. (Yes, I know what all of you are thinking. We were saving a boy named _Levi_ , and the spell I used was _Levi_ corpus. I swear it wasn't an intentional pun! It was the first thing I remembered when I heard Levi's name!) A green light emitted from my wand, and as if on cue, the blond bully was thrown upside down, with his ankle seemingly hanging from an invisible string. I drew my wand to myself then pointed it towards the train's wall, so that the bully would be flung across the train. 

There was a disgruntled, "UGH," as he hit the train's interior, and fell to the floor. I smirked. "I'm sorry, _who_ can't protect himself now? What's that? I can't _hear_ you."

I heard him grumble some more, but no coherent words left his mouth at that point. His other two companions were stunned into silence, probably because they weren't prepared to see such displays of magic from two first years. They looked at each other, then back at the blond. They quickly made a run for it, while trying their best to carry their friend. (Or whatever they called each other, I couldn't care less.)  
  
Satisfied with the outcome of that encounter, I turned back to my best friend, and the two boys who were with her. Lysa was smug. She didn’t need to say anything. She _knew_ we could handle those bullies, and we did. Levi and Mammon, on the other hand, looked so impressed, with their mouths forming literal O's. 

**"** ** _WHOOOOOOOOAAAAAAH!"_ **Levi screamed excitedly, startling Lysa, who grabbed Mammon’s arm in shock, "THANK YOU BOTH! THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!"

I shook my head. "Hey, it's no big deal, don't worry." 

"It's the least we could do to help you out, you know," Lysa added with that grin I got used to seeing.

"N-No, I m-mean it. Thank you both so much. If you hadn't come, I would've been a goner. I don't know why the two of you would bother saving a lame-o like me, but I'm so glad you did."

I smiled. There was something very endearing about his sincerity that I couldn't quite put my finger on. It almost felt cute. I quickly dismissed the thought. "Let's go back to our compartment now before we cause an even bigger ruckus, huh?" I suggested. 

Heads were coming out of compartments, with whispers of _“-how can first years know these spells-?”_ and although Lysa was quite good at tuning out these whispers, I wasn’t quite sure I was just yet. 

It was Mammon who first spoke once we were in our compartment again. "Just a minute, I thought both of you never did magic before? How come ya managed to do _all_ that?"

“My mom is an author,” Lysa began to say, “I grew up in a semi-Muggle neighborhood, but I didn’t know I was a witch ‘til quite recently. But I’ve read _all_ of my mom’s books, and when I got our books last week, I read through them too. I learned quite a bit of spells through my mom’s writing.” She shrugged, “My mom basically taught me which spells are handy in a pinch.” 

“Your mom is _who_ again?” Levi asked, curious.

“Uh, her new married name is Maria Jarvela, but she goes by The Blue Witch by-” 

“THE BLUE WITCH BY THE LAKE?!” 

Both Lysa and I were left dumbfounded. We knew that Auntie Maria was apparently popular in the Wizarding community -- we just didn’t expect kids our age to be her target market. “Uh… yeah.” Lysa said slowly, “She taught me everything I know, how to read, how to write, how to make better decisions.” 

There was a star-struck look in Levi’s eyes, “So you’re _expecting_ to be Ravenclaw, aren’t you?” He asked, “Cause that’s why she went by the color blue in her pseudonym, right?” 

Lysa shrugged, “I just want to be _in_ Hogwarts,” she laughed, then pointed at me. “Char’s mom is her best friend. They were in Ravenclaw together.” 

"Yeah, which she conveniently decided _not_ to tell me on the day of the whole 'magic' reveal thing," I said, crossing my arms. I was still kind of bitter that some of the more important details weren't revealed to me that day, and I spent many days thinking Lysa and I wouldn't be in the same school anymore. The anxiety of our potential separation drove me nuts. "I grew up in a purely Muggle community, so for the past eleven years, I thought my parents were working in insurance."

I laughed, and so did Lysa. Come to think of it, my parents’ stories about their job were never consistent. They would both come home so late sometimes, and other times, they'd claim they have 'projects' that would last them days without coming home. I'd stay in Lysa's place on those days, but I always wondered why things were that way, when they said they worked in 'insurance'.

Then again, I should’ve seen it coming since any time I found myself falling asleep in Lysa’s room, I’d suddenly wake up in my room some time in the middle of the night (covered in dust and sometimes even soot). Sure, that probably wouldn’t be such a big deal for most people, except Lysa lived _hours_ away. It always felt like it was _too soon_ to be home, and not even Lysa knew how I left their house. It made me think that maybe there were some forms of magical transport that we hadn’t been introduced to… yet?

"Apparently, they're both Aurors, though? That's the Wizarding police, right?" Mammon and Levi nodded. "So once they finally revealed the whole 'magic is real' thing, they did practice duels in front of me. They said I wouldn't need the spells immediately, but at least I'd have familiarity with them. Looks like I did end up using one, after all!" 

"Huh, that's pretty cool," Mammon stated, nodding. "Well, you both were amazin', though! I heard defensive spells were a bit trickier, but Lysa made it look _so_ easy!” 

Levi frowned. "Wish I could say the same about my Walkman. Now it's all busted, and I won't be able to use it anymore, ever. They could've broken anything else I had with me! Why did it have to be my _Walkman?_ " I could feel the sadness in his voice, and my heart ached for him. It was one thing to have something you loved break. It was another matter entirely if it was one of your most prized possessions, which I assumed Levi's Walkman was to him, as mine was to me. 

I turned to Lysa, who was looking at Mammon with anticipation - almost as though she knew he was about to do something. She seemed to see that side of people, and expected the best from them. Then, the white-haired boy rolled his eyes and drew his wand. Pointing at the broken Walkman, he spoke clearly, “ _Reparo.”_

The pieces of the broken Walkman pieced itself together, and after a few moments, I could hear the gentle whizzing of it playing the cassette inside. 

“Y-You… You fixed it.” Levi looked at his brother in shock. 

Mammon turned his head away, scratching his cheek, “Well, you wouldn’t shut up about it, would you?” His statement made Lysa chuckle, “I… I know stuff too, ya know.”

Beside me, Levi drew the Walkman close to his heart. Then, he said, “Thanks, Mammon.” 

"Hey, Levi," I started, "that's the second generation Walkman you have, right?"

He beamed. I could tell this was something he enjoyed talking about, and it put a smile on my face. "Yeah, it is! **_WAIT._ **Don't tell me you have one too?!"

"Oh no no, I don't have _that_ one, in particular. I have the original one back at home! It's one of my most favorite things," I said, nodding. 

"AAAAHHHHH, YOU HAVE ONE! I gotta see it next time! We can compare and listen to music together!" 

"Sure! I can bring it the next time we come back from home. I'd love to show mine to you. It's my baby. Next to Kitty, of course." I pointed at my cat. Levi and I then began talking about our music tastes, and I found out we listened to a lot of the same people, which was so freaking cool. Oh, we'd have a _lot_ to talk about.

I could tell Mammon and Lysa were staring at us flailing about our music, but for once, I didn't really mind talking to somebody new. It was refreshing.

Lysa spent the train ride talking to Mammon too. It sounded to me like he fueled her curiosity and her penchant for excitement. And when he talked to her about riding on a broomstick, she looked like she wanted to jump out of the train carriage right that moment to try it. I noticed that she’d glance back at me every now and then, though, maybe checking if I was okay. And I legitimately was.

Somehow, a part of me felt happy. I knew it was too soon to tell, especially since we literally _just_ met the two boys, but my gut had a good feeling about this. I think that Lysa and I may have found ourselves friends that would last our lifetimes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everybody! We're back and with a significantly longer chapter this time! xD This was actually meant to be even longer, but we ended up dividing this to two parts, cause it would've been _WAY_ too long, hahaha. We know we're still mostly in exposition, but we promise we're introducing all the other brothers soon! It's leading there. ;) 
> 
> To everyone who's read this far, thank you so much! We still have so much more we want to share, and we can't wait til we all get there! <3 
> 
> ~ BLMB & empurple1113


	3. Catching up on the Uneventful Two Years - Part Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reminiscing about the past two years had certainly been fun, but now on their third year, Char and Lysa feel more melancholy as the twin brothers of Mammon and Levi show uncanny similarities. As the year starts, whose hand will they be holding? 
> 
> This year's sorting just got a little more interesting.

There was a knock on our compartment door, and a cheerful Hufflepuff girl - half in school robes, and half in Muggle-wear came in, “Hey ya’ guys!” 

“Tonks!” Lysa exclaimed. Then, we exchanged glances, before our eyes fell to the white-haired boy next to her, who had his head in her shoulder, eyes closed. 

_Mammon? Asleep?_ My brows furrowed, _but he was just complaining about the long ride not too long ago._

“Are these the newbies?” She pointed at Belphie and Beel, and Levi nodded at her. 

“Pleasure to meet y’all!” Her hair turned pink before them, causing Beel to gag on his sandwich, and making Lysa giggle, “The name’s Tonks! I’m a Metamorphmagus.” 

“So you’re the one Mammon never stopped talking about?” Belphegor said, his face void of emotion.

“W-What?” We watched her turn as pink as her hair, but tried to laugh off the statement. “You guys must have been imagining that. Why would Mammon talk about me?” She rolled her eyes then turned to me and Lysa. “Anyway, I got info for you guys. They said that the new Defense Against the Dark Arts was an Auror - an _Auror_ , could you believe it?”

“We’ve never had an Auror before,” Lysa mused, “Might be a little-- whoa!”

The train ricketed over the tracks, making the carriage jump, and made Lysa hold on to Mammon’s head upon her shoulders. Tonks’ eyes darted there for a moment, before she continued, “Yeah! That’s exactly what Charlie and I were thinking - maybe it’ll be a little different.”

“But the DADA is cursed,” Levi said with a frown, “ _Cursed._ Nothing can change that.” 

Tonks shrugged, “Well, if it’s Dark Arts, they should know best.” She gave us a wave. “Anyway, I gotta go! Charlie said he had something on the Marauders for me.” She gave the limp form of Mammon a second-glance before she grinned at us, tripping on her way out of our compartment before laughing at herself and disappearing down the corridor. 

I picked up a jellybean, then aptly tossed it across me, hitting Mammon square on the forehead.

“OW! Hey, what’s wrong with ya?!” He exclaimed, rising from my best friend’s shoulders, scowling. “Whaddya want, eh?”

“I want you to stop ignoring Tonks, Mammon!” I said, and across me, Lysa nodded.

“I’m only tolerating this cause _you_ asked, Mammon,” she said, side-glancing at him. “We understand _why_ you’re upset, but you can’t just keep her out of the loop forever.”

“N-Not forever, just…” Mammon scratched his cheek with a faint blush against his chocolate-colored skin, but just sighed. “I dunno.”

I watched his eyes turn to his younger brother’s hands taking whatever food was there in front of them, and Lysa was the first to ask, “What?” 

“Just wondering what house these guys are gonna get sorted into.” He said with a grin, evading the conversation and nudging the ginger-haired boy next to him. I sighed. The five of us were going to _have_ to talk about the situation eventually. But if anything, I’m sure it would be _Tonks herself_ who could knock some sense into him, more than anyone else. “Imagine if you were with me and Levi in Hufflepuff, eh, Beel?”

“Merlin, I hope not.” 

Lysa, Belphie and I shared a laugh at the look of horror on Beel’s face, “Yeah, no. We’re fine being Ravenclaw with Satan, or whatever.” The youngest added, “We talked about it and it doesn’t matter as long as we’re together, right, Beel?” 

Right - twins were usually sorted into the same house. We were told “usually” by Professor McGonagall simply because families in general were typically sorted into the same houses, and twins (who share a bond stronger than fate) were even more inclined to be so. It was what made the seven brothers’ family so unique - aside from taking their mother’s last names, they all also were spread around in different houses: the eldest, Lucifer, as well as Asmodeus, were both in Slytherin with me; both Mammon and Levi were aptly in Hufflepuff. Satan was the lone one in Ravenclaw, and now that the twins were of age, it was only right that the whole family would be curious about what house they could be in. 

Across me, Lysa smiled - probably feeling melancholic: we had those same thoughts. Though, we weren’t twins or sisters, we didn’t mind as long as we were both in Hogwarts. I ended up sorted into Slytherin, and she was in Gryffindor, and for the longest time, our friendship was the talk of the school. Not that we ever minded - but it was always comforting to know that our houses never divided us. And by the looks of it, whichever house the twins would get sorted into, they wouldn’t feel any much apart either. 

Ah, the sorting. 

How could I ever forget?

* * *

If there was another thing my parents didn't mention to me, it was how _grand_ Hogwarts looked. Although, this was something I could forgive them for not telling me, as I think they wanted me to experience the school first-hand without having any preconceived notions about how it looked. It was _so_ much bigger than my Muggle school. 

Granted, this was a boarding school, so it was bound to be bigger, by default, but the school itself felt so majestic. The structure looked like it was built centuries ago, but it still manages to stand the test of time. The school looked like it had gone through so much, but still continued to keep standing. Whether it be its architecture that held it together, or the magic that came along with it, it was quite the structure. I could hear students whispering about it, calling it the _castle,_ and rightly so. I had to convince myself this was legitimately where I would be going to school from now on. I couldn't wrap my mind around the thought, because of how beautiful it looked. 

Okay, scratch that, upon entering the school, it was harder to keep up with how the interior looked. The interior looked just as amazing as the exterior, and I could tell these walls had _so_ many stories to tell, considering all that it has gone through over the years. 

Upon entering the Great Hall, I couldn't help but notice all the floating candles. I mean… I knew they were all floating by magic, but something about it being held by magic made me once again realize that _all_ of this was real. This wasn't just some faint dream from a fairytale novel I'd read. Everything was happening around me and right in front of my eyes, and it put a huge smile on my face. 

The professors were all seated on the opposite side of the entrance, and there was a stool somewhere in front of them, in the middle of the Great Hall. An old, worn-out looking, dark-colored hat was placed on it, which I presumed was the Sorting Hat. Around us first years, I could see four tables filled with students. Two on my left, and two on my right. I assumed this was where the students would be seated in their respective houses. 

Lysa, Mammon, Levi, and I were huddled together while they began calling students' names alphabetically. Gosh, was it meant to feel this nerve-wracking? I mean, I knew that one way or another, even if the four of us could be in different houses, we'd still find ways to hang out. I guess my anxiety was in that _everyone_ would just be staring at you while you were sorted. Literally everyone's eyes would be on you, as the Sorting Hat decided what house you'd be in. It was _way_ too much attention for me at a given point in time. I shuddered. Hopefully mine wouldn't take _that_ long. 

"Elios, Alicia Joan!" I turned to my best friend, and when our gazes met, I squeezed her hand before she headed to the stool. The woman who previously introduced herself as Professor McGonagall placed the Sorting Hat on Lysa's head. There was a pause before the Sorting Hat shouted, **"GRYFFINDOR!"**

Beside me Levi pulled my sleeve. "What? I totally thought she'd be in Ravenclaw!" 

I smiled. "Well, you can't deny the Sorting Hat, right?"

There was a huff of disappointment from Mammon, who probably hoped they could be in the same house, but he said nothing more about the matter. 

Lysa was already sitting nervously at the Gryffindor table when I finally heard, "Levana-Balfour, Charmagne!" _Oh gosh, this was it._ I could feel my heart pounding from my chest as I made my way to the stool. I took a deep breath and prayed for the nth time that my turn wouldn't take too long. There were _way_ too many people staring right now. 

I fiddled with my fingers as the Sorting Hat was placed on my head. It began talking to me… or was it technically thinking to me, since it wasn't actually talking? Ah, what the heck, never mind the technicalities. 

_"Hmm, interesting. You care very deeply for your family and your friends, and your loyalty for them is immense. I can see that you're hard-working and persevering as well, which are all very familiar for those chosen by Helga Hufflepuff. I would say you belong there, but… what's this, eh? I'm looking deeper, and it's not just loyalty to your family and your friends. It's the need to constantly protect them and be able to defend them. Oh, now I'm also seeing an immense pride and ambition within you."_

"What?" I thought back. "I'm not a proud person… I barely even have any self-esteem."

 _"Yes, indeed, I have also seen that. However, that is what you display to other people. Your hard-working and persevering nature is what people would notice firsthand. It doesn't work that way in your head, though. This ambition within you is present especially in things that you're passionate about. When it comes down to things that you like or even love, you would do anything to get that. Just as your pride would be very much hurt if you lost that. Yes, I know exactly where you belong. You can do so much when you set your heart to it, and I think I know just the house that can push you there. It'll lead you to your path of greatness._ **_SLYTHERIN!"_ **

A thunderous applause came from the Slytherin table. As I was ushered there, I couldn't help but think of how this house will be my home for the next seven years. It was amusing to think that my parents were _both_ right. I didn't quite understand what the Sorting Hat meant about my attitude towards other people and how different it was from what went on in my head, but I'd take all that it said to heart. Who knows, it might be helpful advice in the future, right? I could already imagine the grin and satisfaction on Mom-Cait's face -- she had won the bet, after all. One thing was for sure, I knew they'd both be happy with wherever I ended up anyway. 

I glanced at the Gryffindor table that was all the way at the other side of the Great Hall. Even if it wasn't so near to me, I could already see my best friend with a huge smile on her face, waving right back at me. I waved back at her and grinned, quickly remembering what Mom-Selene had told me. _I'm sure that in spite of you two being in two different houses, you'd still find a way to succeed together._ And at that moment, I knew for a fact, that we absolutely would. 

* * *

It wasn’t long before our compartment opened again, and this time, I watched my best friend scowl, while Beelzebub’s eyes lit up, “Lucifer!” 

“So Asmo wasn’t wrong in saying I’d find you here.” He acknowledged my presence with a nod, side-glanced at Lysa momentarily before turning to his twin brothers, “It’s high time you put your robes on. The first years are the first off the train.” 

Beelzebub looked pleased to ruffle for his robes, but Belphie looked unhappy at the way Lucifer was speaking to them, “Why don’t you ever talk normal anymore, huh?” 

Lucifer narrowed his eyes, and dodged Belphie's comment, “Do _not_ make me repeat myself,” he said in his usual icy tone. “In fact, perhaps you should _all_ begin to get into your robes. Afterall, Hogwarts isn’t too far.” He glanced at me with a nod, “Char.” Then, his gaze fell upon Lysa across me, and she looked at him expectantly. 

They held that gaze for a moment, before Lucifer choked out something akin to her name and closed the compartment door. 

“What’s wrong with Lucifer?” Belphie asked, making Mammon chuckle.

“He’s got this weird feud thing with Lysa going on.” The eldest of the brothers there said, “They’ve been at each other’s throats since first year, but--”

“Wait a minute.” Beel turned to Lysa, who blinked twice, “Don’t tell me… that’s her? It’s **_you?_ ** That _one_ person who beat Lucifer in a duel?” 

Lysa flushed a bit (which I expected, because she never took compliments well), and tucked her messy curls behind one ear, “Uh, maybe?” 

“You guys should have seen it; it was _so_ cool!” Levi said, making grand gestures. “She made this lion come out of nothing and everything!” 

(That was a very vague way of explaining what had happened that day, but I let it slide because Levi was trying his best. It was cute how he tried.)

Despite their alleged feud, though, it was Lysa who acknowledged that Lucifer was right and offered for us to start getting ready. After changing into our robes, complete with our colored ties, I watched as Mammon peeked into the compartment with Tonks, Bill and Charlie Weasley, but said nothing. Levi was the one who nudged him back. When we finally got off the train and onto the carriages, Lysa kept a good hold on Mammon’s hand, right up until the time we had to part.

To be honest, sometimes, even _I_ was confused with Lysa and Mammon's attachment to one another. I mean, I knew for a fact that my best friend was into Lucifer (though this was something she would definitely _not_ admit), and that Mammon had developing feelings for Tonks, but her closeness to Mammon was something else. From an outsider's perspective, one would think _both of them_ were into one another, even if that really wasn't the case. To be fair, maybe I just didn't understand that well because I wasn't really a touchy-feely kind of person. I'd be close to someone, sure, but never to the point of doing something physically. My emotions, though, well… that was another matter entirely. 

I turned to my friends. "See you guys later, yeah?"

To my surprise, it was Levi who responded first. "See you on the flipside, Char!" Realizing what he said, he covered his mouth as his cheeks began turning red. _Oh, Levi._ For the _nth_ time today, I found what he did cute. _Why did I keep finding what he did cute?_

"Yeah, I can't wait to see what house the twins are in!" Mammon said, grinning. He wasn't the only one. I was eager to see the house the twins would be in too. 

Lucifer approached me as Lysa, Mammon and Levi waved good-bye to get to their respective tables. “Have you seen Asmodeus?” he asked with a sigh. “I need to keep a hold of him or he’ll--” 

“ _Hehehehe,_ really? Well, I’ll see you in class then, won’t I, cutie?” 

I jerked my head towards the blatant flirting that I was hearing, and I watched Lucifer grab his younger brother by the robes and drag him with us.

“H-Hey, what gives, Lucifer?!” The pretty face of one of Levi and Mammon’s younger brothers was unlike any of theirs - Asmodeus had the softest features, curliest hair, and the lightest brown eyes. His scowl was, however, very similar to his eldest brother, “That cute Hufflepuff was just about to-”

“Mind their own business, yes.” Lucifer finished, making Asmo huff. I chuckled at them - that wasn’t exactly _my_ place to say anything. 

“Ooh, Char!” Asmo leaned in just a little too close as we walked towards the other end of the table, “Had a good summer?” 

“O-Oh, uh, I guess so?” I said in reply. “Lysa came to visit often because her parents -- well, her family, basically -- were moving north permanently, but we had a blast on my birthday. My parents gifted me this _awesome_ gaming set that wasn’t even available yet!” Asmo leaned in to show he was interested, so I continued once we were seated, “We call it an NES, and I got to play with it for most of the summer. It was _amazing._ ”  
  
"Oh! That's the NES Levi owled your parents for, right?” He said, smiling happily and tucking his beautiful, strawberry-blond curls away. I nodded, agreeing to what he said, until my brain put two and two together. There was a big PAUSE in my head. **_WAIT A MINUTE._** _Did I hear that from Asmo correctly? Levi_ ** _owled_** _my parents? Levi, the boy who could barely hold a conversation with someone he hardly knew_ **owled** _my parents who he had_ never _talked to before?_

“He was so nervous the entire summer, wondering if father would allow a favor from one of the people he knew in the US. I'm so glad it worked out for you!"

"Wait, WHAT? **_LEVI DID WHAT NOW?_** "

Across Asmo, Lucifer groaned, shook his head, and massaged his temples, **“Asmo.”**

“Oops?” He giggled. “Was it meant to be a secret?” He put a slender finger upon his lips, “Pretend you didn’t hear from me, then~”

I felt my cheeks redden. I had absolutely no idea how to even react to that. Levi, one of my closest and dearest friends, moved heaven and earth just for my parents to get something for me that I _really really_ liked. The two of us had been talking about it for _ages_ before our summer break, but I didn't think he would actually take everything I said to heart. Wait. Was _that_ why he was asking me what kind of games I might've been into? How long had he been planning this? How in the world did he manage to convince my parents to do this for me? But the biggest question, of course, was _why_ did he do this for me?

I watched Lucifer shake his head at his brother as I tried to calm myself more. His gaze then travelled across the Great Hall, and I assumed it fell upon my best friend, as his eyes were on the Gryffindor table. Lysa mentioned that something happened that summer -- and she was a bit vague about it when she talked about it during her birthday -- but she mentioned Lucifer’s name, so it made me wonder: _Was I right to assume that he actually liked my best friend, after all?_

Then as the Sorting Ceremony was about to begin, Asmo leaned towards me again, shaking me from my thoughts, "Oh, you were totally blushing just then, by the way. Thought I'd let you know!"

"DAMMIT, ASMO, THAT'S NOT HELPING."

I felt my cheeks redden more. Good thing Levi and Mammon were horsing around, or I would’ve felt more embarrassed - Levi had the tendency of glancing at our table, after all. I knew that he was just super excited, but Asmo _really_ shouldn’t have told me. Now, what face was I going to show Levi? _He just moved that mountain for me. Hng._ I bit my lower lip. I was almost SURE my face was entirely red now. 

“The Sorting Hat.” 

Lucifer leaned over the table to motion me into paying attention, because Professor McGonagall had her scroll out already, and was reading names out for the first years. This would probably be the last year that we would be so interested in the sorting, mostly because Belphie and Beel were the youngest of Levi’s brothers, and Lysa’s new baby brother was going to go to Durmstrang… eventually. There were a handful of new Ravenclaws, two new Hufflepuffs, and three apiece for Gryffindor and Slytherin. When Professor McGonagall’s booming voice called for “ _Rialles, Beelzebub!”_ , the cheerful red-head propped himself onto the stool. 

“Mr. Rialles, kindly refrain from _nibbling_ on the Sorting Hat,” the professor warned, making Lucifer shake his head. 

It was a few moments before the Hat finally shouted, **“GRYFFINDOR!”**

Seeing Lysa there, Beel looked quite happy to be in Gryffindor, and my best friend welcomed him, along with the two Weasley brothers present at the table. 

_“Rialles, Belphegor!”_

The sleepy youngest brother trudged towards the stool, and Asmo chuckled, “I don’t think they really need to sort him, I mean, twins are twins, right?” 

However, the Sorting Hat had barely touched Belphegor’s navy-blue hair when it bellowed, **“SLYTHERIN!”**

The Great Hall was rendered silent for a moment. Then across the hall, there were gasps of disbelief, several whispers, and upon the Gryffindor table, the horrified look from his twin brother’s face. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again, everybody! <3 We're earlier on the update this time, since this is more or less a continuation of the last chapter! xD This time around, we've delved into sorting, and the big reveal on the houses of all the boys are here! What do you guys think? Of course, we have our reasons on why we chose these houses for them, which will also be explained in the future, but if you were to sort them, where would they end up? Do you think they can be placed somewhere else too? What do you think will be happening, moving forward? ;)
> 
> Also, sorry not sorry on that cliffhanger at the end. Yes, this was absolutely planned. xD We like to keep y'all on your toes, so that what comes next becomes even more exciting. ;) Once more, thank you for coming to read this AU of ours, and until the next chapter! ^-^
> 
> ~ BLMB & empurple1113


	4. In Medias Res

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The division of the twins was reminiscent of Lysa and Char's separation, but what was this uneasy feeling that the Gryffindor girl can't shake off? And just what is happening to her best friend?
> 
> Well, it's Hogwarts. Classes are only about to begin. 
> 
> Warning: Cursing at the end.

I watched in horror as Belphegor was stunned by the Sorting Hat’s decision. Beside me, Beelzebub froze. I glanced at the Slytherin table where Asmodeus seemed _so_ happy to have his little brother with him, but both Char and Lucifer were not: Char was just as worried as I was, and Lucifer…

Well, Lucifer never showed much feelings to begin with. _Except maybe--_

 **No.** _I’ll get to that later._

“Mr. Rialles, you may join your brothers at the Slytherin table now, thank you.”

Beelzebub, ever so slowly, turned to me, “Belphie is in Slytherin. We’re… we’re not…”

I engulfed the younger Gryffindor into an embrace, and he buried his head into my shoulders, “It’s okay, Beel~” I said, “I’ll take care of you, okay? **_I’ll_ **be with you anytime you need me.” 

I glanced back at the Slytherin table where Belphegor was taking the seat next to Char - he glanced our way, looking at the state Beelzebub was in. Catching my eye, he gave me the smallest of smiles, and mouthed a _thank you_. 

I could only smile in reply. 

When the feast started, however, I think Beelzebub forgot all about being separated from Belphie. Mammon saying he had a “healthy appetite” was definitely an understatement. I think he’d give the elves a run for their money. He probably ate more than half of the Gryffindor table combined. Once the hall was done with dessert, Professor Dumbledore stood up, quieting all of us down with a few gestures. 

“Welcome!” He greeted with his usual jovial smile, “Welcome to another year at Hogwarts. The past few years have seen a great weight lifted from our world. And I can assure you that no dark forces are ever going to touch this castle any time in the immediate future. While I am at it, I’d like to remind everyone that our caretaker, Mr. Filch, has reminded me yet again that students must not be loitering the halls after dinner hours, and Zonko’s products are to be kept in common rooms and courtyard spaces only.” I could already see Mammon sniggering at this remark, “And while I am on the topic, I’d like to give a further warning that the east-side of the fifth floor corridor shall be undergoing magical renovations, and as such, are currently forbidden for students to cross - unless, of course, you’d like to get caught in the crossfire between various magical remedial spells.” _Professor says this as though any of us_ **_would_ ** _want to._

“Remember, while you are at Hogwarts, your triumphs will earn you House Points, while any rule-breaking will lose House Points. At the end of the year, the house with the most points is awarded the House Cup, a great honor. I hope each of you will be a credit to your house.”

He clapped twice, and the doors of the hall opened, “I now hope for all of you a pleasant evening, and may the Prefects of each house kindly escort the first years to their common rooms. Good night!” 

Before he could move towards the other first years, I took hold of Beel’s wrist, “Hey, Bill!” I yelled over several heads and caught the attention of the Gryffindor prefect: the red-headed, eldest Weasley brother, “I got hold of this one, okay? Don’t worry!” 

“All right, Elios!” Bill acknowledged me and gave a thumbs-up, “Just _keep your voice in,_ okay?”

I nodded at the hint he gave me, but Beelzebub looked so confused, so I shook my head, “It’s the password.” I explained shortly, chuckling, “Come on! Let’s go meet Char and your brother at the courtyard before we go up to the common room.”

The way that Beel’s amethyst eyes lit up reminded me of Christmas lights when the night gets dark. There was anticipation, celebration - and a feeling I can’t quite discern.

“Ah! Lysa!” Mammon was waving at us from afar, and as I was pulling Beelzebub with me, from the other side, I noticed my best friend running with Belphegor in tow. 

“Char, over here!” Levi had yelled at her. 

Upon noticing him, I watched her redden like a ripening tomato, but before I could ask about it, I watched Beelzebub pull himself away from my grasp and tossed himself over his younger brother, “Belphie!” 

I was really big on sibling love - _really_ . I didn’t have any siblings until pretty much last year, so Char was as close as I had to having a sister. To me, she was practically _family._

“H-Hey, Beel.” Belphegor looked relieved, but locked his arms around his brother anyway, “You okay?” He asked after pulling away. 

“Y-Yeah,” _I swear, these twins are so cute_. Beel’s eyes reflected Belphie’s before turning to me. “Alicia’s taking care of me.” 

“Mhm, and Char’s taking care of me.” 

“W-What?” Char looked distracted, “Oh, yeah.” She seemed to be avoiding Levi's eye. The third-born, however, was too busy arguing with Mammon to completely notice. _Did I miss something?_ “I’ll be there any time you’ll need me. I got you.” 

“You seem to be forgetting about me.” 

I didn’t notice, but Lucifer had walked over to us. I suddenly felt tense. He glanced at me momentarily before looking at the lot, “Classes will begin early tomorrow, you should all return to your dormitories.” 

“Yeah, yeah.” Mammon rolled his eyes while attempting to wrestle Levi into a head-lock, “You're not prefect yet, you don’t get to boss us around.” 

Even with the usual banter, I couldn’t keep my eyes off of Char’s beet-red face, and her minimally-worded answers. Yes, she was the quiet type, but with our crowd, she was usually more enthusiastic (especially with anything that involved Levi). “I wonder if something happened…” I thought aloud. 

“She found out.”

I turned to face the eldest brother, who (surprisingly) replied to my thoughts, “Asmo was the little birdie that told her.”

I groaned. _And we took so much effort to keep it from her._ “I suppose there’s nothing more to do than see this play out, huh?” I said in a low voice, trying to lighten the mood between us, “After all, it should be about time that they caught on.” 

“Indeed.” When he looked at me amidst the chaos and chatter, I noticed his onyx eyes blazing with red specks I never noticed before. My heart skipped a beat. 

_I wonder why… Why did he have to_ **_lie_ ** _to me this summer?_

* * *

It was probably obvious to anyone who would look at me that next to Char, the next valuable confidante I had was nobody else but Mammon. I think I spent my entire first year talking about him that my mom assumed I had a little bit of a crush. But honestly? It’s probably because Mammon and I are a little _too_ alike. We both have the same ways of showing affection, and we both have the same understanding when it comes to the people we love: they’re precious, they’re to be protected, but most of all, we’d rather we take the burden for _anything_ rather than leave it onto them.

This isn’t to say he wasn’t similar to the others. He loved Muggles almost as much as Levi - but mostly because of their ingenuity and invention. He enjoyed playing pranks with Tonks, but was attentive to charms like Char was. But mostly, it was the two of us who had a lot in common, and he understood my inclination to trying new, unfamiliar things. He even saved up for a skateboard and taught himself how to use it, instead of a broom, after finding my roller skates. 

So, the summer after our first year, after hearing several times from him, my mom let me meet him at cafes near the train stations, and even sat with us once. To say he was entertaining for her might've been an understatement, so it was no surprise to me that my mom ended up being comfortable with me being around him, instead of guarded. 

One thing we promised, though, was writing letters every summer: especially when my place became too far to travel by train. You’d bet that I was quite surprised at the state of the letters I received just this summer, though. 

More on that in a moment. 

Anyway, my family’s plan to move up North had been certain, so my mother and I had slowly been packing and unpacking belongings to and from the northern lake-house. _Ilmarinen’s Cottage_ was the name of our cabin-in-the-woods, and we were settling in quite nicely. More and more owls were beginning to find their way to us, though, and after the third letter of not hearing back from Mammon, I was finally relieved to see their owl at my windowsill.

But the way my name was written, alone, told me something was off.

At first, I was really skeptical: I know that it’s only been another year with him, and that he could _maybe_ change, but I was almost 100% sure that Mammon never used words like “I hope” or “I’m sure”, at least, never in their full phrasing. The most evident of which was the fact that Mammon had _never_ called me Alicia -- to him, I was just Lysa. And I wanted to keep it that way. But whoever had tampered with our mail seemed to have wanted someone to talk to - so I wrote back, but made sure not to mention Mammon. 

_If you’re wondering which area of the world I’m in, I’d like to tell you that I’m probably much further north than I wanted. Mother says not to disclose any specific locations, but I think it’s safe to tell you that at the edge of our house is a forest that leads up to the mountains, right by a lake where, if you stand at the right spot, you’d be in five different places at once._

_The lights dance in the summer sky here, and I hope I could take you in a few years. Nature has its own magic for me._

_Always,_

_Alicia_

When the next letter came, I was more sure: the one who received my letter was _definitely_ not Mammon. The elegant script made me realize that this second letter was in more care than the first, and it was almost like they were _convincing_ me not to speak to or about Mammon. 

_Alicia,_

_Lights, you say? I suppose I have a vague idea of your general location. It has been said that nature has its own magic, and that witches or wizards can draw upon this power at many moments of need. I haven’t personally tried it, but I’m afraid of doing any form of magic outside of school. We live in the city, and it’s always bustling. I’m not necessarily saying that I dislike it, but I’d like to say there are advantages to living farther from the city centers._

_For one, you can have some peace to yourself._

_As you know, I live with seven other men at home - father included. The butler would be the eighth. It’s crazy almost all the time._

_I urge you to enjoy your peace before we start term. I’m looking forward to it now._

I squinted. 

_Nope._ Definitely not Mammon, no matter how I look at it. But, I exchanged several letters with this impostor until, finally, when my birthday came around this August, I received a letter from the _real_ Mammon - who gave me the idea of who had been impersonating him.

_Hey, Lysa!_

_Sorry for not writing to you almost all summer (_ I knew it!) _, but I got grounded for sending my brothers’ broom crashing into the garage. I couldn’t think of any better birthday gift for ya than something we made here, ourselves, so I hope you accept these wildflowers my brothers and I have picked for ya. There’s also some tomatoes and cherries in the satchel._

_Beel and Belphie start this term, and they’re pretty excited to meet you and Char!_

_Thanks for telling Levi how to get to Char’s parents, by the way. He was so scared, we thought he’d faint and be done for. He was so focused on Char, he didn’t tell you I was grounded. Hope you didn’t feel_ _too_ _lonely without me._

_Chocolate frogs and caramel taffy on me on the train, okay?_

The flowers were signed by each of his brothers, and I gazed at all the different scribbles of names until a familiar, elegant penmanship caught my eye: I knew those flicks on the r’s and i’s anywhere, and a small gasp escaped my lips. 

“... Lucifer has been writing to… _me?_ ”

* * *

“It’s nine o’clock.” 

The bells of the Clock Tower shook me out of my thoughts, and I realized Lucifer was looking at me expectantly. _Was I… staring at him that long?_

“H-Hey, um…” I began to say, not knowing where to start. Lucifer raised an eyebrow at me, but didn’t interrupt, “By any chance, did you-?” 

“Char, Lysa, help me!” 

Levi was in one of Mammon’s full-body grips, and I turned to find my best friend ready to scold the second-born brother. Belphegor had fallen asleep on Beel’s shoulder (so quickly?) as they sat on the stone benches, and tearing my gaze from them, I found that Lucifer still had his eyes on me. 

“Lucifer?” 

I watched him widen his eyes when I said his name - and I realized that it must’ve been the first time I’ve said his name properly: no derision, no contempt and no smugness. And with me being breathless, nervous and uncertain, it must have sounded much different from what I had intended. 

“Alicia.” 

The way he said my name, though, was just as different. It lacked the usual bite, and he seemed to say it only so that I could hear it. _Was this the sign? Should I ask him now? Or, should I tell him that I caught him red-handed?_

While I was busy arguing with myself, it seems he decided on what should happen next, and he gave me a small huff of amusement, before his lips prowled into a small smile. 

“Good night.” 

* * *

“Hey, Alicia, are you sure it’s okay that we’re coming back this late?” 

There was a pout from Beel, who (despite not being pleased to part with his twin) didn’t want to get into trouble, “I don’t want Professor McGonagall to bite your head off.”  
  
“I don’t think she’ll ever do that… At least, not to me,” I chuckled at his concern and pulled him through the changing staircases along the portrait hall, until finally, we came to the portrait of the Fat Lady. 

She looked at us with a frown, making Beel pout next to me. 

“Password?” 

“Alicia, did we get one?” Beelzebub looked like a worried puppy. 

I grinned at him, “Of course we did. I told you this earlier!” I turned to the Fat Lady and spoke clear as day:

_“Vox Leon.”_

The portrait swung open, and I welcomed him in. I introduced him to the Weasleys - Bill and Charlie - and the Prefect of Gryffindor helped him to get settled into his quarters. He looked nervous for a moment, but I told him - “Belphie is doing the same thing as you, so you have to be brave for him.”

And to me, he was.

However, once I was in my night-gown, I found that I couldn’t bring myself to sleep. It wasn’t like me to feel uncomfortable in my dormitory mattress. Unlike Char, I was used to moving houses and sleeping in various beds, but I felt something off that night. Probably hearing me toss and turn, Cerbie jumped unto my bed, immediately knowing that something was up. He tried nuzzling my hands, but when I realized I wasn’t going to get any sleep yet, I made my way down the dormitory stairs and found myself alone in the common room, with the hell-hound right behind me. I couldn’t shake off the feeling that I had to prepare for something. _A storm? A battle?_

I sat in front of the fire and pulled my legs up to my chest, “School starts again tomorrow, and I’ll manage.” I said to myself, “Not like I haven’t handled this much before.” 

There was some barking, and Cerbie went around in circles in front of me, then began barking at the stairwell. _Someone’s coming?_

“... Alicia?” 

The soft voice made my heart melt: it was Beelzebub. 

“Beel?” I stood and signaled for my hell-hound to sit: the dog stopped at the stairwell and looked at us protectively. Beel’s hair was in disarray, but he had a pillow in his arm, and a licorice wand in the other, “What are you doing, eating at this hour?”

“I couldn’t sleep.” He pouted, “Belphie usually hugs me until we’re both asleep, and it feels weird being alone in my bed.” 

_What is it about this boy that I can’t resist?_

“Come here, then.” I went back on the couch in front of the fire, and patted the space next to me for him to follow, “Let’s talk until you feel tired.” 

“Okay.” He nodded and put down his pillow at the end of the couch and scooted closer to me, “So, Alicia, what was _your_ sorting like?” He asked, looking confused, “The Sorting Hat was fighting me in my head, I couldn’t really explain it. I answered back to it - and right after that, it declared me a Gryffindor.” 

“Oh?” I asked, recognizing how familiar this was, “What did you tell it?”

“Well, it was saying that I had to make choices for myself, and that my brothers’ shouldn’t always be what I put ahead of me,” he looked down at his hands and laughed a bit, “Then, I told the Hat that it _was_ my choice, that their protection is my duty, and I’d do anything to keep it.” 

“That loyalty to your brothers brought you here.” I took one of his hands, “Let me tell you… I pretty much argued with the hat too.” 

* * *

The sorting in my first year started with a boy named _Tristan Cook_ . From what I overheard from the gossip vine, he already had a cousin in Ravenclaw, and he was sorted right together with him. There was _Dawn, Demetrio, Dunn, Edd, Eggerton_ and finally, the woman who had introduced herself as Professor McGonagall finally announced my name: “Elios, Alicia Joan!”

I drew a deep breath and turned to Char, who reached out and gave my hand a small squeeze before I walked up to the hat. I looked down at my hands the moment I sat on the stool, and when it touched my head, I could immediately tell that some magic was taking place.

_“Look at that - you’ve got heart, yes. A lot of guts, definitely. Oh, and with this mind - yes, so much can be done for you and you will learn so much. There is a sense of righteousness, yes, with this thirst… to prove yourself? Interesting. Accepting, understanding - my, my, my… Such a difficult decision. Hufflepuff?”_

I mentally shook my head. _No, I don’t think so._

 _"N_ o... _this mind of yours has the potential… and with your natural talent, and manner of thinking, hmm, so, so difficult. You’re better suited to knowledge beyond these books, see, and that’s where you gravitate naturally. Maybe Ravenclaw can help you... But_ **_could you handle it?_** _"_

Something in what the Hat said made my blood boil, _Are you telling me_ ** _I’m not good enough?_** I thought, knowing that it was likely sending me a challenge, _Trust me, I_ ** _can_** _handle it!_

 _“Hah. I’ve heard answers like this before.”_ The Sorting Hat was almost laughing as he said it, _“Then, you might as well be_ ** _GRYFFINDOR_** _!_ ”

My eyes widened in surprise - for sure, I thought it would toss me back to Ravenclaw, or worse, reject me as a student for being so defensive. Professor McGonagall took the hat off my head, and gave me a gentle pat on the shoulder. 

“Welcome to the house of the brave, Ms. Elios.” 

* * *

I didn’t know which part of my story Beel had fallen asleep to, but his head was on my lap when I finished my tale. To be honest, I didn’t know how I had fallen asleep either, because one moment, Beel’s head was on my lap, and in the next, the eleven-year old was in my arms, and Bill was shaking me awake. 

“Hey, Lysa. Why did you two sleep the night here, eh?” 

I jolted awake at his words, grateful that the common room was mostly empty, and Beel awoke to my movement. _Oh Merlin, we fell asleep on the sofa_. 

“S-Sorry, Bill.” I sighed, “I couldn’t fall asleep.” I was rubbing my eyes, and the first year next to me was yawning, “You okay, Beel?” 

“Mhm~” He smiled brightly at me, “I’ll go get ready.”   
  
“You both should.” Bill said, chuckling at us, “Off you go!” 

Beel was already in the Great Hall when I came down for breakfast. I was nearly done with my toast and marmalade when Mammon slid into the space next to me while peeling his oranges, “Mornin' sunshine~” 

“Hi Mammon!” I bit into my toast, “How was Levi?” 

“Argh!” He groaned and put an orange slice into his mouth, “He was moaning _all_ night last night. I don’t know what happened, but it looks like Char hasn’t talked to him properly since.” 

“Asmo told her.” I explained with a sigh, “Lucifer told me last night.”

Instead of focusing on my concern with his brother and my best friend, Mammon looked appalled for a moment, “Since when were ya in speaking terms with _him_?”

“You got a problem with it, Mammon?” Beel demanded, face smeared with oatmeal, but evidently with a frown.

“No, no!” He reclaimed, “Just saying that Lysa and Lucifer aren’t really _the best of pals_ , ya know. Take it down a notch.” He leaned in to whisper to my ear, “Beel absolutely _loves_ Lucifer. Don’t let him hear a word outta ya.” 

I laughed a bit, “I think there’ll be a problem there.” 

“Morning, Lysa!” 

My eyes lit up, finally hearing Char’s voice, and I spun around to see her with a hand on Belphegor’s wrist, “Morning!” I greeted, “Are you taking Belphie to class?” 

“Yeah. He missed the tour last night because of us.” Char explained, “Aren’t you taking Beel too?” 

I looked at the schedule and grinned. _Transfiguration_. 

“Shouldn’t be a problem.” I said, waving at them as they turned to leave the hall, “See you at Potions!” I turned to Mammon, “And I’ll see _you_ in Herbology.” 

He gave me a half-arm hug, before jumping up to collect his brother. Once Beel and I were done, we walked to the Transfiguration classroom with time to spare. Professor McGonagall was at the door, and the smallest of smiles played upon her lips. 

“Good morning Professor!”

“Good morning, Miss Elios.” She looked at Beel, who froze for a moment, “I take it that the youngest of the brothers have taken a good liking to you.” 

“A bit, yes.” I chuckled, “Had it been a good summer, professor?” 

She nodded, “Indeed. It’s a little quiet without you younglings around, but at Hogwarts, there’s always a job to be done.” 

“Um… Alicia-”

“Did mom write to you about the new house?” I asked curiously, “She says she wrote you a manuscript earlier this month.” 

“Still sitting at my desk, dear.” This time, she chuckled, “I’ll get to it after the Hogsmeade letters have been checked.” 

“Alicia, I think-”

_DING-DONG. DING-DONG. DING-_

“That’s the bell!” I exclaimed, and much to the professor’s amusement, I said a hasty _goodbye_ , before dashing down the hall, gripping my backpack tight.

“ **Shit.** I’m late!” I cursed aloud. _"Snape’s going to_ **_kill_ ** _me!”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi everyone!! We're back, and not too far from our last update, so yay, us! :)) We hope you all noticed the difference in perspectives, because these two aren't going to be the only ones in! Hm... what if... one of the brothers also take a hand on the wheel? ;) Wouldn't you want the brothers to tell their part of the story too? 
> 
> Do you think Alicia has reason to worry? Why was Lucifer writing to her that summer? And, most importantly, why is Mammon ignoring Nymphadora Tonks? ;) 
> 
> Answers in the upcoming chapters! And yes, we absolutely love our cliffhangers so hang tight haha! XD Again, thank you so much for taking time to read this indulgent AU of ours! We really appreciate it and we hope you keep reading! <3 Til the next chapter! 
> 
> ~ BLMB & empurple1113


	5. One of the Boys: Mammon and the Payphone

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Mammon takes a step back to evaluate what happened over the summer. Another white-haired boy enters Hogwarts, and now, he finds himself in a sticky situation with the very girl he had been trying to avoid. 
> 
> Mammon/ Nymphadora Tonks
> 
> Warning: Some cursing

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, hello! 
> 
> Just as we teased, here's the first "One of the Boys" chapter! Every now and then, we'd be sharing some POVs from the boys, just to give you a bit of a taste of what's going on through their heads! Hope you enjoy this rendition of young, soft Mammon, just as much as I absolutely loved writing it with @BLMB! 
> 
> \- empurple1113

It was the first time in a long time that Mammon woke up early, and he knew it was because he hadn’t been at peace in a while. _Dammit,_ he thought to himself, _when is this going to end?_ While it was true that Alicia had been helpful in so many ways, he knew that he was still looking for something else: after all, Lysa wasn’t Tonks. 

It was only a few weeks into their first year that he was planning a huge prank on some Ravenclaw bullies - afterall, none of those blokes on the train could go hurting his younger brother and think they’re getting away with it, right? _Of course not._ (Even if Lysa and Char had already given them a piece of their mind, he wanted to get his own version of vengeance too.) 

He was already at the hallway and preparing to toss in a mixture of dung and smoke bombs that he made himself, when he saw a shorter student giggling and swiftly bouncing along the halls. Small suction cups attached to tubes were on either side of the hall, and catching sight of him, the boy ran towards Mammon, pulling him by the robes at the corner and shushing him. 

“The maniacs are leaving the classroom!” he said to Mammon excitedly, dark, twinkling eyes enticing him. “Those things will pop when anyone crosses the line between them!”

That close, Mammon recalled seeing short and spiky black hair, and a very eager demeanor. Probably similar to his own, if he wasn’t so surprised, “What did you put in ‘em?” 

“A mixture of smoke and dung bombs that I made myself!” 

Mammon felt a rush of emotion that he didn’t quite understand, but before he could retort, the boy before him tugged on his robes excitedly, “Here they come!” 

They peeked over the corner together, and Mammon was surprised to find that they were targeting the third-year Ravenclaw and Slytherins who had just finished Charms. It took him a moment to realize that the first ones out were some pure-blood maniacs from Slytherin, and his brother’s bullies from the train.

There was a sharp whistling when the group passed, and in an explosion of smoke, Mammon had to cover his nose because there was a strong scent of farts and potentially skidmark-underwear that came from the hall. There were several groans and moans and complaints from the older students, but the kid with him, eyes twinkling, was just laughing and giggling.

“I got them! I got them!” He laughed, “I can’t believe that worked!” 

“That was my idea!” Mammon said, scowling, “I thought of using that concoction too!” 

The boy winked, “Too slow then!” 

“Professor! Professor!” 

“Oof, gotta run!” And before Mammon could say another word, the boy bounded off. Naturally, he needed to make a quick getaway too, if he didn’t want to be blamed for it (he practically had evidence in his pockets). Based on how he looked, the kid was his age but he never saw him again. 

_Until…_

**“Hey Mammon, how long are you going to tie your tie?”**

Mammon shook his head out of his memories to find that Leviathan, his younger brother, was glaring at him - tie undone, shirt unkempt and eyes red. _Was he crying? Or reading too late?_ He could no longer tell. 

“I’m doing it, I’m doing it!” He haphazardly tossed his tie around and let Levi pull him out of the dormitory and down to the Common Room. Usually, Tonks would be waiting, sitting at that large armchair near the fireplace, her feet up and a book in hand but today, the chair was sitting sad and empty… like the feeling it left in his heart. 

“I guess you and Tonks haven’t spoken since the payphone?” Levi said, not looking back at him. Mammon didn’t answer, and thankfully, Levi didn’t press on. 

They spent breakfast quiet, and Levi kept looking over his shoulder, trying to get a glimpse of Char on the Slytherin table. Mammon took a glance as well, and Belphie seemed at home with her, his head on her shoulder, eyes fluttering between awake and asleep. Char busied herself with breakfast and didn’t seem to be glancing back at the Hufflepuff table, like she usually did.

Levi looked like he was going to murder his cereal.

 _This is stupid._ Mammon thought with a groan, grabbing an orange. He stood up to take a breather and his eyes caught Lysa’s form finishing her toast and marmalade at the edge of the Gryffindor table. He grinned and went up to her.

“Mornin’ sunshine!” He greeted with his best attempt at a grin. 

He shared a quick conversation with her, and was shocked to find that Lucifer had talked to her the night before. _Lucifer talking to Lysa? That’d be the day._

“Hey, did you see Lucifer talking to Lysa last night?” He asked once he and Levi arrived in class. 

Levi shook his head, “I didn’t notice, no.” He said honestly, “But Lucifer’s been awfully quiet when we talk about her nowadays. He’s stopped complaining about her this summer. I wonder what happened.” 

Mammon had a hunch, _and his gut feelings were usually right_ , but they all knew that Lucifer and Lysa were skirting around each other for over a year now. It’s just very funny to see them avoiding each other after all that built up tension. _Then again, can’t blame them. They hated each other off the bat._ The tension must have been terrible to deal with after realizing they had a thing for each other. 

He groaned, then slumped into his desk.

History of Magic was absolutely _brutal_ for Mammon. He never really learned anything, and he was sure neither did Levi. Binns didn’t actually care how much they learned, or in what way they’d prefer to learn, so he just usually meandered about whatever historical event he could remember at the time. He glanced at the seat across him, and Tonks was uncharacteristically attentive to taking down some notes. 

_Not like it was my fault_ , he thought to himself with a yawn. He could feel his eyes closing. Afterall, he could really use a few more hours of sleep.

* * *

_Mammon,_ _  
_ _  
_ _You can dial these numbers on the payphone in town and you’ll be able to call Tonks. She has a telephone right in her bedroom, so if she hears it, she’ll pick up. Otherwise, just introduce yourself to Uncle Ted and Auntie Andie. They’re nice folks._ _  
_ _  
_ _Be safe on the roads,_ _  
_ _Lysa_

Mammon carefully folded the letter and put it in his chest pocket. It was the latest of a long line of correspondence with the Gryffindor girl, the one hailed as Princess of Transfiguration. (He just loved teasing her with that title). Then, he grabbed the jar of jam that he had cleaned out and filled to the brim with Muggle quarters. Initially, when Lysa and Char told him and Levi about telephones, he wasn’t that interested. But, when the idea of calling Tonks, hearing her voice instead of just reading her writing, got to him? _Damn_. He had asked their butler to exchange half of his summer allowance into Muggle-money, and had even asked his father week after week to be able to go into town to make this call.

And now that he finally could, he grabbed his skateboard, ran through the halls of their mansion, and right before he could make it out the entrance hall, their butler made an appearance. 

“Lord Mammon?” 

He tensed, then turned slowly, “Y-Yeah, Barbatos?”

“Are you perhaps going into town now to try your hand at the local payphone for Lady Nymphadora?” He said with a small, knowing smile. 

“Uh…” Mammon could feel himself turn bright red, “Well… yeah.” 

Barbatos whipped out his wand, and with a flick, his parka zoomed in from the hallway coat-closet, “Please take this with you, then. Rain is expected in the afternoon.”

He grinned at their well-meaning butler, as he took the parka and put it on, “Thanks, Barbatos!” He turned and ran out, “See you at dinner!”

It was easy to maneuver around town with his skateboard now, especially after going a few rounds earlier that summer with Lysa on her roller-skates. It was apparently a very quick and common way to get around for the Muggles, and frankly, Mammon didn’t mind the convenience of it all. Muggles could be freaking geniuses, if he could say so himself. But at the moment, it only seemed like he and Levi would agree - afterall, it was that love for Muggles that they had in common. It was rare for Levi to spend time with any other brother (except, maybe, Belphie).

When Mammon arrived at the street where he and Lysa hung out, he grinned as he recalled the previous summer’s encounters - she really _was_ a great person, honestly. She was sunshine and cinnamon rolls, but also tough like old boots? _Lucifer was an idiot for not talking about what he really thought of her._

He maneuvered around pedestrians until the outline of the red box caught his eye: even from afar, he could see the words _telephone_ at the top in bold, black letters.

When he got in, he set his skateboard against the glass wall, and could hardly restrain himself: _he was going to hear Tonks’ voice._ It had been over a month since he heard the cheerfulness in it, since he was able to laugh and be himself fully. He was ready to occupy the phone booth for an extended period of time - he was ready! 

He followed the instructions on the phone box, lifted the receiver and dropped in a coin. He quickly pulled out the paper in his chest pocket with the number to dial. He nearly dropped the phone when it began to ring. 

_“Heya - Mammon!”_ He could already imagine how she would talk. Her boisterous laugh would fill his ears, like a melody he would never get used to hearing. But, the ringing sound kept going, and going, and going… Til the call was eventually dropped, and his coin was ejected back to him. He frowned.

“Huh?” _Did I do something wrong?_ He looked at the number on the piece of paper, and figured maybe he made a mistake in pressing some of the numbers.

However, he had already repeated dialling the number many times, _four, five… eight, nine…_ He had lost count on how many times he had tried to get a hold of Tonks, and the line outside the phone booth was getting longer. It wasn’t until a muggle officer had knocked on the door of the booth that he was asked to step out, and he begrudgingly obliged. 

His fists tightened into balls as he held Tonks’ home number tightly, and he sat on the pavement next to the phone booth with his skateboard between his legs. He didn’t know how long he was sitting there, nor what time it was anymore, but all he knew was that it was a lie.

 _Tonks promised to answer any time I’d call_ , he felt tears of frustration brimming in his eyes, _so why… Why can’t I get to her? Did she give us the wrong number on purpose?_

He didn’t understand: in fact, that was something that he knew Tonks wouldn’t do. Tonks loved being around people, and talking to, and with, them. She was as playful as can get, and would take any opportunity to hang around with him, and anyone who could accept her for who she was. Her hair would turn bubble-gum pink or cotton-candy blue whenever she was in a great mood, he remembered this, so why did Mammon think talking to her would make her feel that? _Who was he to her, anyway? He wasn’t that important._

A few droplets of rain told him that his butler was right in sending him out with a parka, but he didn’t feel like putting it on properly. 

It wasn’t until he felt the rain stop over his head, and Lucifer was looking worried, holding a blue umbrella over his head, that he stood up, wrapped his arms around his older brother and wept.

* * *

“Mammon… _Oi. Mammon!_ ”

Mammon’s sapphire eyes opened to meet Leviathan’s stern gaze, “Class is done. Get up, you bum.” He groaned, “Seriously, I want to get some reading done. I packed in a new comic that I want to finish.” 

“Sure, sure,” Mammon stretched and stood, grabbing his bag along with him. The classroom was already notably empty, and it seems that Tonks had run out of the room before he could get to her, “Are you going back to the dormitory?”

“Yeah. How about you?” 

“I’m gonna grab a muffin from the kitchen,” He said as he stood up, “Let me know if you want one. I’ll try to catch Lysa to see if she can hand one to Beel.” 

“Nah, I’m okay.” They went opposite directions at the end of the hall, and as he was making his way down one of the halls, he saw an unfamiliar, white-haired Ravenclaw boy attaching two suctioned tubes next to the doors of the Charms classroom. 

_This isn’t going to be good_.

As he approached the door, he watched the boy go into the corner, and begin to argue with someone. He could see a familiar shadow, and after coming close enough, he realized why:

Tonks was arguing with this boy!

 _What?_ Mammon was beside himself, _Who_ **_was_ ** _this boy? I’d never seen this kid in my whole time in Hogwarts._ Was this the reason why Tonks was giving him a cold shoulder? _Why, was it because his white hair was better than mine?_

However, the two were so busy arguing that they failed to catch that Professor Flitwick was rounding the other hallway and was about to enter his classroom when there was a small _POP!_

Confetti and colored powder exploded in front of the room, turning the small professor into shades of pink and purple. 

The sketchy Ravenclaw boy had made a dash and before Tonks could run after him, Flitwick had bellowed, “Nymphadora Tonks!” 

_What? No,_ **_it wasn’t her_ ** _!_

“W-Wait, Professor Flitwick!” 

* * *

**Detention.**

That was what he got for trying to save Tonks from a judgement that was unjust. **He got detention** . In fact, not only did he get detention, but he got detention _with her_ , despite not having anything to do with that prank to begin with. Flitwick just _assumed_ it was caused by both of them, seeing as they had a nasty reputation for pulling pranks (to be fair, though, their pranks were usually aimed at _students_ , and the professors sort of just… get tangled in), but their punishment wasn’t half bad. 

_“Sort these papers per house, per year level. You may start with the first years up until you move up to the fifth years who are taking their O.W.L.s. Leave the N.E.W.T. students to me.”_

The silence, though, was unbearable. 

_Come on. If you read fast enough, you’ll be done before dinner_ , Mammon thought miserably.

Across him, Tonks’ usually vibrant pink hair was in subdued, pastel-blue shades, reminiscent of summer skies. She did her best to avoid his gaze, but after finishing the papers for the first years, she sighed.

“I’m sorry I got you caught into this, Mammon.” 

_Whoa. Did she just-?_

“Ha?” Mammon tried to play it off, “What’re ya talking about?”

“This… detention thing,” She stood to take the pile of second-year papers and handed half to him, “I tried telling my cousin, Solomon, that it wasn’t cool to play pranks on teachers here, but he wouldn’t listen.” _Oh. Her_ **_cousin_ ** _._ “And he took off, leaving _me_ to deal with the effects of his prank. I mean, I don’t mind covering for him but…” 

Finally, she looked up at him - and her eyes this time were a beautiful, chocolate-brown, “You didn’t have to stand up for me, and even get in detention for me. You didn’t have anything to do with this _at all_ , so, I’m sorry.” 

Mammon felt something tugging at his heartstrings.

“Tch.” Mammon rolled his eyes, looking down at the papers and stacking them in their pre-decided stashes, “We talked about this before. I’m on _your_ side, whatever happens. Sure, I got into trouble, but Flitwick will know the truth eventually.” 

“B-But you haven’t even talked to me since… well… since-”

“Yeah.” 

He didn’t really feel like talking about why he was distant. He didn’t want her to know how pathetic he was, crying and not getting on his skateboard for days because he was so let down by the non-call. Sure, it would have helped if he admitted that he wanted to call her, or had written before he called her, but she told him that she’d be home _all summer long._ If that had changed, she’d have told him… But she _didn’t_ . And when she did tell someone, it was **_Alicia_ **, not him. 

Then, before he could even notice it, Tonks’ light colored hair was beginning to darken red at the roots, and she scowled at him.

“What is your _problem_?” she demanded, “I’m trying to apologize here and just get things back the way they were, and you’re avoiding me like the way you do with any other problem!”

“Hey, like you said, this wasn’t my fault, okay?!” Mammon snapped back, and before he could restrain himself, the words fell out, “Besides, _you_ were the one who said I could call you any time over summer and you’d answer. But guess what? I tried calling you once, **_once_ **, and did you ever pick up? No you didn’t.” 

“What are you talking about?” Tonks looked confused, “I was home _all_ summer except-” She paused and dropped all the papers in her hand, causing them to scatter on the floor. “Oh _shit._ ” 

Much to Mammon’s surprise, Tonks buried her face into her hands, her flaming-colored hair now turning into a depressing grey. 

“Oh Merlin, Mammon, it _is_ my fault, I am _so, so_ sorry!” 

She took a while to recompose herself. Mammon was getting more confused by the minute.

Finally she looked up at him, and she sighed, “I was home the whole summer, except that one day that I had to go to my cousin’s house because he was transferring from Ilvermorny, the American school, to Hogwarts.” She shook her head, “I thought I wrote to you about it, and now, I recall that it was _Alicia_ who got that letter, and probably late, too, because the owls had difficulty finding that cottage they had up north. Ugh.” She groaned, “I’m so _stupid_. I’m… I’m really sorry, Mammon. I was waiting for your call all summer, and I didn’t expect it to end up like this. Good gods, I’m so sorry.” 

Mammon’s heart began to race, _She was expecting my call?_ **_My_ ** _call?_

Finally, things began to make sense: none of it was on purpose, just a series of unfortunate events. Tonks wasn’t avoiding him, _he_ had avoided Tonks.

“Hey. It’s okay.” 

Mammon didn’t recognize the warmth that came from his voice, but the relief that flooded Tonks’ face was unparalleled. He stood up to sit next to her on the bench, and enveloped her in an embrace, which she returned, “I should have opened your letters, and wrote you back, and stopped avoiding you. I… I thought you were done with me.” He admitted, “So, I’m sorry too.” 

Tonks hit him playfully in the arm, “You idiot.” She pouted at him, “How could I ever be done with you? There’s still so much we haven’t done.”

“Hey, I’m still your guy,” Mammon grinned and Tonks laughed that obnoxious laugh he was so familiar with, “Now, let’s pick up all these papers before-”

“Excuse me, Professor Flitwick, but may I disturb you for a moment?” 

The door of the Charms classroom burst open, and much to Mammon and Tonks’ surprise, Lucifer was there, pulling Satan by the collar on one hand, and Solomon by the wrist on his other. 

“Mr. Liewen!” The Professor was aghast, “You have two minutes to explain why you have two of my best students, with your brother included, dragged in here, in unsavory means, might I add.”

“On the usual occasion, Professor, I do believe my brother Mammon deserves a detention or two, but I am honorable and do believe in a just system.” Lucifer said matter-of-factly. He tossed Satan and Solomon forward, “Speak. Tell the Professor what I overheard.” 

Satan looked uncomfortable, but Solomon sighed.

“It was me, Professor. Dora had nothing to do with the prank.” 

“Dora?” Mammon asked. Beside him, Tonks flushed crimson.

“A-And I was the one who created the concoction,” Satan admitted, side-glancing at Lucifer with a glare, “Neither Mammon nor Ms. Tonks are able to create a mixture like that. We should be the ones in detention.” 

Flitwick looked at Mammon, “I do owe you an apology, Mr. Liewen. So you _were_ telling the truth!” 

Then, the professor sighed, and glared at Satan, and the boy called Solomon, “I am _very_ disappointed in you both. The brilliant minds in Ravenclaw are not to be used to endanger _our neighbors and friends_ , and definitely not to be used to let them take punishment in our stead. You should know better.” Flitwick gestured for the two Ravenclaws to come forward, “I’ll be returning the points I removed from Hufflepuff, and will take ten points off Ravenclaw for each of you, Mr. Etoile and Mr. Sprita.” 

Finally, he looked at Lucifer, “And, I must thank you for your sense of justice in coming forward, Mr. Liewen, despite putting one of your other brothers in detention. Five points to Slytherin.” 

“You may go, and leave this mess to the other two,” Flitwick said to Mammon and Tonks, “And remember-” he winked, “- you must do better for yourselves, and for each other.” 

And with his usual smirk, Lucifer led them both out of the room, leaving Solomon and Satan to pick up the papers on the floor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap! 
> 
> Thank you so, so much again for reading "Just a Touch of Magic"! ^_^ We're glad to have finally reached the 200 hits mark, and we'd also love it if you'd share some of your thoughts with us through the comments! We'd totally love for you to guess: what will happen next? Whose POV will we see? And, of course, will Lucifer and Lysa actually admit their feelings like their friends want? What about Char and Levi, now that Char knows about what Levi did over the summer? 
> 
> So many questions, so little time! :)) Thank you for all your love and support! Keep those kudos coming, and enjoy our semi-sporadic updates! Just y'all wait til the next update ;)
> 
> \- BLMB & empurple1113


	6. The Cold Room

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alicia is late for Potions, finds some allure in an awkward walk with Lucifer, and ends up lost in the halls of the castle with Mammon, all on the first day back in Hogwarts. 
> 
> What a year this is starting off to be, eh?
> 
> Lucifer/ Main character, Mammon/ Nymphadora Tonks and a bit of Jealous!Levi.
> 
> Warning: Minor cursing.

My arrival at the Potion’s classroom was less than dramatic to say the least, and before Snape could even take a chance to get mad at me, I gave my lowest of bows as I entered the room: “I’m sorry I’m late, Professor!” I proclaimed. 

When I finally chose to look up, Severus Snape’s typically cold and blank face showed some hints of amusement, and he raised an eyebrow, “Yes, I know you are.” He said, “Especially since I was once baffled by your punctuality, almost thinking, in fact, that you may never be late to my class. Yet here it is.” 

I drew a deep breath for the points that were about to be taken off from my house when-

“You seem to be holding onto that note quite tightly, Ms. Elios. Would you mind if I read it?” 

I looked at my right hand and, true enough, there was a small piece of parchment in my grasp. I handed it to the Professor with a nod, and as his eyes scanned its words, his lips pursed. 

“Hm… I’ll have a word with Professor McGonagall to make sure she never causes you any more delays.” He said, returning the parchment to me before swiftly turning, his black robes following like echoes in his movement, “Be seated, Miss Elios. Welcome back to Potions.” 

As I sat next to Char, I stared at the paper in my hands and she leaned over, “What was that?”

“I-I dunno,” I stuttered, unfolding the parchment as I said it, “Let’s find out.” 

_Professor Snape,_

_I give my apologies for sending Miss Elios to your class with tardiness. My short reminders with her became an extended conversation. Do let her off with a warning._

_Sincerely,_ _  
_ _Minerva McGonagall_

I grinned, and next to me, Char chuckled, “She tries not to make it obvious, but she really can’t help it sometimes, can she?” 

“I suppose she can’t.” I chuckled and took out my notes for Potions before Snape could get another word out of me. We weren’t doing anything practical for the session, which I was thankful for, and by the time lunch rolled out, I had one of the youngest of the brothers coming up right next to me again just as I bid Char goodbye with a wave. 

“Alicia!” 

“Beel!” I engulfed the youngest brother in an embrace before towing him into the hall. He finished Transfiguration with a few points from McGonagall for his hard work, and over lunch he told me about his worries, especially now that he was in different houses from Belphie.

“He was always the one who did better in school work and who understood things fast,” he said with a pout, “I’m not good with studying, and he could get by without any studying at all, even if all he did was sleep. He told me that he never liked repeating things, so when he was done understanding something, he’d rather sleep it off.” 

I chuckled - somehow, I found that idea cute. But unlike him, I loved hearing things again for confirmation. “Well, you always have Study Hall hours here to do your homework together, and you don’t have to worry about homework because I can always help you with that.” 

Beel swallowed a large bite of his sandwich before-- “I heard you’re great at Transfiguration. The Hufflepuffs said the older students called you the Pri-”

“Shh~!” I shook my head and wrung my hands, “D-Don’t listen to them. I’m just good at Transfiguration, I’m willing to help anyone. But Merlin, help me, I suck at Herbology.” 

He raised an eyebrow, “Don’t you have Herbology after Study Hall?” 

“We do, yeah. I got Mammon and Levi with me too.” I nodded, “You got… Potions, don’t you?” 

“With Belphie~” He added happily.

I looked around. Belphie was already with Char, and both were busy catching up, much like what Beel and I were doing; Tonks was nowhere near Mammon and Levi, making me think that maybe Mammon still hasn't brought up what happened last summer. I sighed. _This was going to be a long few days_. 

After finishing my lunch, I decided to bring both Beel and Belphie to Potions, despite the risk of Snape having much to say about my punctuality earlier that day. However, much after lunch, I realized that Belphie was nowhere in the hall to be seen. 

"Where are you going, aren't we studying for that Potions homework?" Char asked, bringing her bag with her into the Great Hall while the plates were slowly disappearing and being replaced with book stands and candles, "It's time for Study Hall." 

"I'm supposed to bring Belphie and Beel to Potions first," I reclaimed, handing her my bag, "Go on ahead, I'll be right back."

I told Beel to go to the Potions' Classroom, before he got Snape’s wrath on the first day. And when I rounded a corner near the dungeons, I heard a scream from the hallway that led to the broom closet, followed by Belphegor’s voice, “ _You!”_

“Belphie!” 

I dashed down the hallway, wand at the ready, to find Belphie and an older Ravenclaw girl, wands at each other’s faces.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing; he’s just a first year!” I yelled, pulling Belphegor behind me. 

The girl in front of me, whose face was beginning to grow plump, lowered her wand, “Are you serious?” she said, “ _He_ was the one who attacked **me**!”

“Rubbish,” I said, pulling Belphie closer to me with one arm, and watching him lower his wand, “He’s just a first year. Belphie won’t do anything like that. Your spell must’ve rebounded, _nasty_.” 

“Tch. _Idiot._ ”

She probably realized she wasn't getting out of this, or maybe even recognized me, and didn't want to bother with the trouble. I held Belphegor a little tighter, but he relaxed in my arms. We both watched the girl run away and down the hall, and I found myself cupping the youngest brother’s face into my hands, “Did she hurt you, Belphie?” 

He stared at me, long and hard, and I swore there was a hint of colour rising in his cheeks, but he shook his head, smiling that small, sly smile of his, “I’m fine now. Thanks.”

"Ah, thank the gods." I pulled him into an embrace, much like how I would with Beel, "Let's get you to class, and-"

"There you are, Belphegor."

The voice at the other end of the hall belonged to none other than Lucifer. His face was stoic as usual, expression shaming and stern, "You should be off to Potions by now, not snuggling with some Gryffindor girl who's needy for affection." 

I rolled my eyes, "Says the guy with the stone-cold heart. As if _you'd_ know." 

As though on cue, Belphie scowled at Lucifer, "You don't need to babysit me," he scoffed, "Piss off and do whatever pompous things it is that you do." The youngest turned to me, and in a shocking turn of emotions, he began to stammer, "I, uh… Thanks for that." He scratched the side of his face shyly, "I'll catch you and Beel during dinner, okay? I can handle going to Potions myself, for now."

He gave me one good squeeze before he peeled away from my hug, a hand lingering slightly, before making sure he wasn't anywhere near Lucifer when he passed. 

I shook my head and, before I could retort, my eyes once again met Lucifer's dark, piercing ones. It almost seemed like he considered me for a moment. I wasn't sure if he was going to initiate conversation, so I broke my gaze first, "I guess I'll be heading back to the Great Hall now, too…" I trailed off, mostly trying to seem like I was talking to myself aloud.

I held my breath when I went past him, and I heard him exhale with musing, making me turn to him in shock.

"Hm," he walked beside me, "I'm headed there too." 

* * *

The faces that Char, Levi and Mammon gave me were definitely unmatched by my own shock. Though we walked to the Hall in awkward silence, Lucifer did not find it odd or weird at all that he sat next to me, when I went straight over to sit in front of Char.

Naturally, _she_ was the one who recovered from shock first, "... This is an unusual play of events." She commented, eyes flickering between me and Lucifer.

"Right," Mammon added, looking at me first, then at his older brother, "Come clean with it, what did ya do to Lysa, eh?"

Lucifer scowled, "I did nothing you are accusing me of," he said in his usual, matter-of-factly tone, "I'm here, in fact, to deliver a note." He reached into his robes and pulled out a small piece of parchment, and handed it to Char, "Leah sends her regards. She told me you'd know what this meant." 

"L-Leah wrote you a letter…?" Levi frowned, not at all pleased by the thought that someone else had written Char something. 

"Oh, yeah. She wanted to train me," my best friend nodded, not particularly noticing what concerned Levi at the moment, "Thanks, Lucifer~"

"So she wrote you something, and you're going to talk to her about that later on? Like… _properly_ ? Like _face to face_?" The Hufflepuff didn't want to let it go. I could already feel some tension rising between him and Char. 

She furrowed her brows, "I mean… she's my Quidditch Captain, so I should be replying to her, right? Is there something wrong with that?"

Levi grumbled as he folded his arms. "No, no there isn't. Not at all." 

There was an awkward silence between the two before Lucifer spoke, his usual air of arrogance showing, "Well, I'm just here to make sure that the Slytherin house stands proud."

I rolled my eyes, "Yes, yes, we haven't forgotten, you're the _Pride_ of Slytherin." 

"I still don't buy it," Levi said, propping his elbow on the table and leaning into it, "Anyway, why are you with Lysa, hm? I thought you said she was _abhorrently Gryffindor_?"

I side-glanced at Lucifer, who shot his younger brother a killer-glare, and I rolled my eyes: _Yup. Typical Lucifer, intimidating his brothers into submission_. 

"It doesn't matter what he thinks," I snapped. If Lucifer was hurt, I didn't bother to care at the moment. Then, turning to Char, I changed moods to lighten up the situation, "Leah training you sounds great, though! When do you start?" I suddenly felt hyped, "Hope the first game of the season isn't each other - that's gonna suck." 

"Fraternizing with the enemy again, are you, Alicia?" 

The familiarly deep, warm voice, partnered with two hands on my shoulder could be no one else but the current Gryffindor Quidditch Captain. 

"Gavin!" 

I spun on my seat and stood to throw my arms around the fifth year student, who laughed at my actions. I heard Mammon and Char chuckle, but I ignored them for whatever reason it was. After all, Gavin Qi was the youngest captain Gryffindor had so far, and an excellent strategist. It was for this reason that McGonagall got him for a captain to begin with. His strategy and my foresight combined were what made Gryffindor formidable in last year’s Quidditch Cup. 

"You're as enthusiastic as ever," Gavin chuckled as he pulled away, "Had a good summer?" 

"It was all right, yeah," I said with a grin, "You?" 

"It was fun, yeah," He nodded. After all, he had always been a man of few words, "Listen, we don't play until the second game so try not to get in trouble, okay? I need your help sorting out the newbies.”

I laughed, "Hey, I'm the good one, remember?” My hands held the sides of his shirt tightly, “Don’cha worry. I’ll help you any way I can.”

He ruffled my hair affectionately, making me feel just a little warm inside, before waving at Char and Mammon. Once he had walked back to the other end of the table, I noticed that all three of them were looking at Lucifer expectantly.

So, I looked at him as well. 

Eventually, I realized that this wasn't the case. Because the eldest of the Liewen brothers suddenly looked taken aback, and began to stammer.

"W-What?" he asked, turning to me. 

"W-Well, everyone was looking at you, so I thought you'd be saying something!" I reclaimed. 

Without another word, Lucifer chose to purse his lips, clench his jaw, mutter a lame _excuse me_ , before standing and briskly walking away. 

And, naturally, I still didn't understand what Char, Mammon and Levi were sniggering about.

* * *

Later that evening, I received some good news after seeing Mammon and Tonks finally sitting next to each other at the table. It almost looked like none of that petty jealousy and beating around the bush didn’t happen. 

"I heard Satan got into detention today," Beelzebub was telling me, "And Lucifer bailed Mammon out of detention to do it." 

"Lucifer did _what_ ?" I asked, stabbing my potato a little too hard and making a loud _screeeeeeeeeeech_ against my plate. The other Gryffindors nearby glanced at me - I ignored all of them.

"Yeah," Beel continued, "Asmo said that Lucifer pulled Satan by the collar and dragged him from the hallway and into the Charms Classroom. He was pretty cross. That would have been quite the sight." 

I chuckled at the thought, just imagining the scene, "I bet." 

"Oh, hey, Mammon." 

I looked at the direction Beel was looking, and Mammon was standing there behind us, "Hey!" I said with a grin, "Looks like everything worked well, eh?"

Mammon looked around, then leaned close, "Let me tell you all about it. I got news. Why don't we take a walk after supper?"

And so after my second helping of potatoes and chives, and downing it together with a few glasses of white grape juice, Mammon and I wandered the castle, walking almost aimlessly until he finished his story. _Honestly?_ I knew he and Tonks would make up sooner or later - all that petty jealousy was never going to work on her. She would never take me as a threat. But aside from that, it wasn’t like Mammon could _ever_ resist her. Like, ever. It would literally be Tonks telling him to jump, and him asking how high. 

"Thanks for catching me up on that, Mammon," I started to say, "I'd hate to tell you so, but you know I _did_ tell you that she could never resist you." 

"W-Well, ya know I can't resist her either, right?" Mammon chuckled as we walked into the portrait hall with the changing staircases, "I mean, I got into detention to save _her_ ass and- whoa!"

Mammon's statement was cut as the staircase we were on began to change and move. 

"Mammon, what did you _do_?!" I demanded, looking up at where the staircase was about to connect. This was unusual - this staircase never really moved this direction before. 

"I haven't done _anything_!" He nearly shouted, and when he looked up, he grabbed my hand, "Come on, then! Before it decides to change again!"

Knowing he was right, I ran up and we were met by a closed door. Mammon tried pulling on the knob, "It won't budge!"

“Are you a wizard?” I demanded. I pulled out my wand, " _Alohomora!"_

"Nice."

Mammon entered the hallway and I followed shortly after. The hall was less lit than most of our staircases, and there was an eerie mood to it. It almost felt like we weren't supposed to be here.

"Hang on," I spoke softly, almost expecting something to happen, "Mammon… Isn't this the fifth floor?" I processed the flights of stairs we walked and the staircase we just got on. _I hate being right, damn it._

He turned to me, aghast, "You don't think-?"

"Yeah," I nodded slowly, "We're in the forbidden corridor." I sighed, and offered a hand, "Come on, let's go see how we can get out of here."

Well, that was _supposed_ to be the plan. We walked further down the hall, hoping we would find a separate exit, or at least an entrance to someplace else, when I realized something was changing. 

"Lysa." 

Mammon was serious when he pointed it out to me, squeezing my hand to call my attention, "This… area. It seems colder than usual." 

I looked around - and naturally, nothing was there. Then, I had a strange thought, "Mammon, check that side of the wall." I pointed across me, "I'll check this one." 

When I touched the wall, it was nothing but concrete and stone. Just the typical make of the rest of the castle. However, Mammon yelped on his side of the wall.

" _Shit._ It's cold, Lysa!"

I pointed at the wall with my wand. Then, tracing a large 'R' in the air, I whispered, _"Revelio._ "

The wall before us disappeared, and a staircase leading up was shown, “Brilliant.” 

Mammon didn’t seem too pleased. I exchanged nervous glances with him.

"Well?" 

"Might as well."

With both our wands out, we headed up the staircase, only to find another wall in our faces. I tried using _revelio_ one more time, but it did not work.

"Le’mme try something." Mammon flicked his wand.

_"Flipendo!"_

The wall crashed like images in a mirror - as though it was evidently trying to conceal something. And when we finally got to the hall, there we saw it: a large room enclosed in snow and ice, and at the other end, there was a short staircase that led to a large, wooden door that looked like it was made from maple wood. It was utterly silent, save for the sound of the ice's frosty movements, falling like freshly frozen snow.

"Wait." 

I grabbed Mammon's arm as he tried to enter the hallway, "This… feels weird." I said slowly, "It feels wrong. We shouldn’t be here, Mammon.” 

He took one good look at my face and with the way I shook my head, he knew that was as far as we would go. And so walking back where we came from, we found that the staircase didn’t move again until we resumed our position on it. We decided that we needed to know what that door was before we went looking into it again. Instead of running to our own houses, we ran straight to Slytherin house to tell Char (while Lucifer eavesdropped nearby, of course). 

I didn't know how right I was in that moment, though, because we never knew that there was something more to the Cold Room.

* * *

**CLAIRVOYANCE**

_“Lumos.”_

Char was the first to light the way, and she looked for the wall that Alicia had mentioned, “Up there, look!” She said, “There’s some cold hair coming through that part of the wall.” 

Rushing over to where she had pointed, Alicia waited until they were all together until she waved her wand in a slanted motion, _“Revelio.”_

Surely enough, a vanished stairwell appeared behind the wall. Lucifer was getting a bad feeling about it, but his brother’s safety had to come first. _When we get Levi out of here, I’m giving him the lecture of his life._

When they got to the top of the stairs, the first thing they saw was another wall. Alicia looked at both of us, “Wands out, guys,” and with a nod, she counted, “On three: one… two… _three.”_

**_“Flipendo!”_ **

There was a crashing sound, and like a broken mirror, the image of the wall came down, and we saw a room, encased in ice. “This looks like what Satan had predicted,” Char said, “Levi must have gone further than this.” 

At the end of the hall was an entire wall made of ice. It was thick, and unnerving. _Levi must be freezing now_. 

“This wasn’t this high when Mammon and I saw it,” Alicia pointed at the wall, “When I broke down the wall the last time, we could already see the door at the other end. The vault…” She turned to me, “It must be stronger.”

“Nothing we can’t handle together.” Lucifer said to her with a small smile.

Char cleared her throat, “Levi first. Flirting later.” 

“Right.”

Alicia didn’t even deny it, making Lucifer flush a bit. They all approached the ice wall with caution. Up close, they could feel the cold that was emanating from it. 

“One more time, guys.”

Char held up her wand first, and Alicia counted again, “One… Two… Three.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> That concludes this part of the story! Thanks so much for waiting for us to update ^_^ Did you like that lil' surprise? ;) This has been a long time coming, and this chapter has a lot of references to the original book and movie of Harry Potter. Did you spot them? We hope you did! But most of all -- thank you so much for giving us 300 hits! 
> 
> Hit us up in the comments and tell us: whose POV would you like to see next? Which OM or HP characters would you like? And... Do you know where Leah and Gavin came from? We'd love to hear from y'all! <3 Thank you for all your love and support! Keep those kudos coming and coming, and we hope our semi-sporadic updates aren't too boring! Til the next big update!
> 
> \- BLMB & empurple1113


	7. Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Char takes care of the sleepy seventh-born, and Levi becomes emotional... Well, they both do. And some things are just better when you've found your way home. 
> 
> Leviathan/Main Character, some Mammon/Nymphadora Tonks
> 
> Warning: Minor cursing

I watched as Mammon and Lysa went out of the Great Hall, off to who knew where they'd go. Back when we were in first year, their random wanderings after dinner had me worried, thinking something awful would happen to them the moment they'd leave at this hour. Over the years, I'd come to realize that they both could handle things on their own, and that there wasn't anything wrong with them leaving. Over and over they'd prove my worry wrong, because they'd come back in time for curfew every time, never fail. Obviously, tonight was another one of those nights. 

My new responsibility, Belphegor, the seventh-born of Mammon and Levi's family, had already finished eating. He obviously did _not_ have the voracious appetite of his twin brother. His constant sleepiness, though, was another matter entirely. The moment he finished eating, he quickly asked me if he could nap. I mean… who could deny anyone a nap, right? I didn't realize, however, he meant having a nap _on my shoulder_. It was a struggle, to say the least, of attempting to eat my food and drink without waking Belphie up. Thankfully, I succeeded, and I resigned myself to thinking that I had to get used to this from now on. Apparently, the seventh-born had this perpetual sleepiness about him. I couldn't blame him. I loved to sleep myself. 

As I was about to finish my last piece of chicken, a familiar wave of yellow and purple came to sit on the opposite side of the table. In my haste to want to talk to him, I quickly swallowed the piece of chicken and almost choked myself. 

"CHAR! OH NO, OH NO! Are you all right?!" He yelled, frantically waving his hands in worry. 

I gestured an "I'm fine" as I quickly drank the iced tea next to my plate. _Dammit. Do_ not _do that to yourself next time!_ "I'm okay, I'm okay. Don't worry." 

He smiled, gleeful and adorable, and it sent my heart in a flurry of emotions. I couldn't understand. **_Why_ ** _did he make me so happy?_ Why was his presence always something that made me feel so whole, complete? It's like everything made sense when Levi was around, even when everything was in disarray. He was the calmness amidst the cacophony that was my life. 

And yet, he _kept_ doing that without realizing. Not to mention, I _still_ haven't talked to him about his grand gestures that happened over summer. I just… I didn't know how to approach him on that. He went out of his way to ask his _father_ for a favor. His father, who he was always nervous about talking to. His father, who must've been busy with what he usually did. Levi went to him for that. Then after that, he _owled_ my parents for yet _another_ request! That's two requests in one go, and Levi did _all_ that. While I still have no idea what he said to make my parents agree, he did it. For me. I didn't know how to repay him just yet, but I so badly wanted to let him know how grateful I was for all he did. I really, truly was. 

It was times like these I realized how much of a Slytherin I was. Sure, a thank you could work, but… I felt the need to do something more. Was a thank you really enough for _all_ he had to go through just to let my parents get me my present? No. I needed to do something more. I needed him to know just how much I appreciated what he did, and a thank you alone would _not_ suffice. After all he did for me, the least I could do is also get him something, right? 

The only problem being I didn't know what exactly that extra thing was, and I was a blushy mess every time we'd talk that I could barely speak to him properly. _Dammit, Levi. How could you keep doing this to me?_

I smiled at him back, but his smile faltered when he noticed his brother's figure on my shoulder. He looked at me hard, then looked at Belphie. Then he looked at me again. Crossing his arms, he faked a cough. "Maybe, I should go. It looks like I'm interrupting something." He was already leaving his seat.

"Wait, what? NO, LEVI, WE WEREN'T DOING ANYTHING!" I could feel Belphie stirring on my shoulder as my voice began to rise, but I couldn't care less. I could feel my wave of panic as I realized I unconsciously hurt the Hufflepuff. Quickly transferring Belphie's sleeping position to the table we ate on, I made a run for it. 

"Levi!" I called, as he was quickly dashing out of the Great Hall. "LEVI!" Dammit, why did this boy have to be a fast runner. I could barely keep up. 

"LEVI!" I yelled again. "Please stop and listen to me! PLEASE!" 

He was already fast-approaching the Kitchen, but he stopped and turned around. I could only hope he heard me and changed his mind about leaving.

"Listen to you? Y-You haven't even been talking to me like we used to since we got here." I could see his eyes were red, and there was a sinking feeling in my stomach. _Shit. I made him cry._

"You said you'd talk to Leah, and you probably already did, but when will you talk to **_me_** , Char?” There was that pained tone in his voice that was dipped in jealousy and something else - something I couldn’t quite figure out at the moment. “I mean, you've probably talked to Belphie so much more than you did to me. Do you hate me _that_ much?"

He wasn't even trying to stop his tears now. He was legitimately crying, and I had absolutely no idea what to do or what to say. _I caused this._ **_Me._ ** I hurt him enough to make him cry, and I was such an idiot for not realizing sooner what all that I was doing made him feel. 

"And don't think I haven't noticed you paying attention to other people _except_ for me! You've been avoiding me, Char! For crying out loud, you let _Belphie_ sleep on your shoulder. You never do that to anyone!" He shook his head as he wiped the tears from his eyes. "I mean… I get that. I'm a recluse, nervous, bubbling ball of anxiety. Why do you have to keep putting up with someone like me, right? Nobody else would. But I… I just thought… you weren't like everybody else. I thought… you saw through me. Beyond me.” He sighed and turned away from me, his last words struck like a knife through my heart:

“I thought I was found."

I was too stunned for words. There were way too many things racing in my head at that time. I didn't even know what to feel: on one hand, I couldn't help but chastise myself for my idiocy. All I kept thinking of was how to make it up to Levi; I didn't realize that what I was doing was inadvertently hurting him in the first place. What’s worse was it caused enough pain for him to cry. I was too busy thinking of what _I_ wanted to do to make him happy that I didn't see that he was hurting from my actions -- or _lack_ of it, really. Levi was one of the people who meant the world to me, but what did I do? I ignored him. I didn't talk to him. I did everything I _shouldn't_ be doing to someone I cared so deeply about. **_I was such an idiot._ **

On the other hand, though, I just wanted to make him as happy as he made me. I wanted to make sure he felt that same amount of happiness that I did, because he deserved it. He deserved the _world_ , but I forgot that I was part of that, which was so utterly stupid of me. I forgot that my presence mattered to him as much as he did to me. I was part of his world, just as much as he was part of mine. 

To put it simply, _I messed things up_. Big time. 

"...Nothing? You still won't say anything to me?" Levi spoke, his voice shaking like slowly shattering glass. "Well, I figured as much. I guess… I'm just not worth your time." He turned around to leave again, but this time, I took his hand. I _held_ his hand. I didn't want to let him go. **Never**. I couldn't. He jumped in surprise. He was just as shocked as I was. 

I could feel the tears streaming my face. _There was no point holding it in now._ "I… I'm sorry, Levi.” I started to say, my voice trembling as I spoke, “I'm so, so sorry. This is all on me. I… I found out -- _oh gods_ , this is going to sound so stupid now that I'm saying it out loud -- about what you did over summer.” His eyes widened here, and I continued: “I found out what you did for me _just_ so I could have my NES. The whole talking to your father, owling my parents -- all just so you could help me get it. I mean, in the end, of course it was my parents who ultimately agreed, but _you_ did that, Levi! You!"

His eyes were as wide as orbs, and I could almost swear he blushed, but it wasn't the time to think of that. All I could think of was _him,_ and how to fix this - **_fix us_**. I continued, "You didn't have to go through all of that for me, Levi, but you did, and I just… I didn't know how to thank you. I know, I know, you're probably thinking saying 'thanks' is the best way to do so, but… I want to give you something more than my thanks, you know?” I gulped and sighed.

"You went out of your way interacting with all these people, even if I know it isn't something you'd usually do. You did _all_ of that for me, and I appreciate that fully and wholeheartedly. You don't know how happy it made me. Oh wait, _no_. You legitimately do cause I was owling you about it, but," I shook my head. Words were being very hard for me at the moment, "What you did means the _world_ to me, and I just wish I could make you feel what I felt. To repay you for all that you did for me and more. 

"You _are_ worth it, Levi. Every part of you. You may not see what you mean to people, but I want to be able to show you how much you mean to me." 

Our eyes lingered for a moment, and a part of me wanted to do something more than hold his hand, but I couldn't bring myself to it. Instead, I pulled him close to give him one long, tight hug. I know it wasn't enough to make up for the pain I caused, but I had to make it up to him somehow. Not just for his gift, but for this entire fiasco I caused, too. A hug was the _least_ I could give him, for now.

"You _are_ found, Levi. Please know that.” I whispered, hoping that he could hear me through my sobs and his own, “You will _never_ be any less than who you are. You will _never_ disappear in my eyes. I will always be here to see you. I will always be here for you. Whatever it is, we're in this together. No matter how big or how small. I'll be here." 

We were both crying messes after our lingering embrace, and, pulling away, I couldn't help but laugh. All my worry about how to approach him felt so silly now. Granted, I still wanted to get him something, but I didn't have to keep in the fact that I was immensely grateful for what he did. All I had to do was tell him. So much could've been avoided if I did so, but oh well. It is what it is. 

"You don't have to repay me. Not even a bit. I didn't do that just cause, Char. I did that because you're my one and only true friend. It's the least I could do for everything you've done for me and more. Really.” He chuckled a bit. “There's no need to do anything for me in return," he said shyly, scratching his head as he did so. 

"We'll have to see about that, Levi," I said, laughing, "For real, though. Thank you -- for absolutely everything. From the bottom of my heart, I appreciate it. I appreciate _you_. Thank you." 

"Y-You're welcome, Char. You're very much welcome." He blushed once more, but this time I was _sure_ that he did. Unfortunately, it made _me_ self-conscious, and I started blushing too. Ah, whatever. We could both be crying, blushy messes tonight. What mattered was that we resolved this massive miscommunication (that I started, _I know, I know_ ). What mattered was that Levi and I were okay now. A little shaken up after all this, but over all, we were both good. 

_Plus, we were both as awkward as ever, heh!_

"I-I also have to thank you, Char," he started. "Thank you for understanding me and for putting up with me. I know it isn't always easy, but… I'm happy to have a friend like you."

Dammit, he was doing it _again_. I was well-aware he was just being honest, but gah, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach. What in the _world_ was wrong with me? What the hell was this feeling? Were these the 'teenage hormones' my parents kept joking about? I'd hate to admit it, but they could be right. The weirdest part was that I felt a slight sadness when Levi mentioned 'friend like you'. Did I want… our friendship to be something more? 

_No, Char. Stop it with these thoughts._ Both of us literally _just_ overcame something huge between us, and already my emotions were going elsewhere. No. I had to take things one step at a time. The first step being answering the biggest question in my mind right now: What do I **REALLY** feel about Levi? 

The Hufflepuff began fiddling with his fingers. "I was wondering… did you maybe want to come to the common room with me? I brought my Walkman with me again, like I do every year, and I have some new cassettes you might want to listen to -- but only if you want to, of course! I know you're busy, and maybe you have other things to do in your free time.” Oh Merlin, there he was again with his adorable rambling, “Ack! Sorry, maybe you'd even have homework to finish, and I'm just bothering you by asking this, but I can't help it! I just want to spend more time with you! I-I-If that's okay with you, that is…" He abruptly covered his mouth, realizing what he had just said. I could see the worry in his eyes. 

I always found it amusing whenever he got passionate about things he was talking about. Whether it was his music taste, the games he played, or anything Muggle-related, really. He'd start talking faster without realizing, his words were coming out first before his thought process. This time, he seemed to be _very_ passionate about his music… and about bringing me to his common room. I had absolutely no qualms with this, because we both coincidentally share the same music taste, plus it gave me more time to be with him. Honestly, it was an offer I couldn't refuse. I jokingly put my index finger in front of his mouth. "Shhhh, say no more. I'd love to." 

His eyes then lit up like a child seeing presents on Christmas day. He looked quite adorable whenever he did that. "You would?" 

"Mhmm. Lead the way, Captain." 

* * *

There was definitely something about the Hufflepuff Common Room that had a cozy feel to it. Maybe it was all the sofas that felt _really_ soft and comfy. Maybe it was the general aura of calmness and relaxation that it exuded. Or maybe it was the fact that I got to spend time alone with Levi at that moment, and the world always seemed to make sense when I was around him. It just… it felt like home. Now whether that was the common room's feel, Levi's presence, or a combination of both, I had yet to decide. 

After a quick visit to his dormitory, he showed me three cassette tapes he wanted us to listen to. "Pick one!" 

I shook my head. "I'm _horrible_ with decisions! _You_ decide!" 

Since he couldn't choose either, he ended up randomly picking one. Apparently, it was Bon Jovi's latest album, _Slippery When Wet_. He had one earphone in his ear, and I had one on mine. Though the album was very upbeat and rock, I could feel my tiredness kicking in. Which was odd, really, as we didn't even do _that_ much on that day. Perhaps it was the rollercoaster of emotions that was our 'fight'? _That could be it._

The comfortable feeling that was their common room didn't help me either. It was practically luring me to sleep. The low light, the smell of gentle firewood and candle-light, all while on soft bean-bags and fluffy pillows were an epitome of comfort. With Muggle-music and Levi’s company, things were falling into place. I couldn't help but lay my head on Levi's shoulder, until I eventually fell asleep to _You Give Love a Bad Name_. Little did I know that the boy beside me had slowly fallen asleep along with me too, his head atop mine. 

Some time later, I felt myself stirring, as I could hear a shuffle of footsteps and some hushed voices. It sounded like Mammon and Tonks had arrived. I was still way too tired and sleepy to bother coming to my senses, but I did have some recognition of what they were talking about.

"I guess they both made up now too, huh?" That was Mammon. There was a hit of amusement in his voice. 

"Seems like it," Tonks replied. 

There was a pause, before Mammon spoke again, "Hey, Tonks, ya got some film on ya?"

"Like... Muggle film? I think I do, yeah. But wh-- OOOOOHHHHH."

Under regular circumstances, I would've sat right up, shocked the living Merlin out of him and argued with both of them right there and then because I just _knew_ Mammon would use this as blackmail material. It was the perfect opportunity for it. Aside from my sleepiness, however, there was a part of me that just wanted to stay this way. It just felt so right to have fallen listening to music, with Levi by my side. 

So they could take all the photos they wanted - that didn’t matter to me at the moment.

There was a click, as the blackmail-worthy picture was taken. I heard another click, followed by Mammon justifying himself, "We have to take more than one, to be sure! Ya never know what could go wrong!" 

"What should we do, though? Should we just leave them there?" Tonks asked. I could feel her presence coming close, and laying a blanket on top of us - as expected, she was the one who had more sense between them.

"Eh, we'll figure it out tomorrow. I still want to talk about that frozen corridor.”

"Works for me. Won't Char get in trouble for going beyond curfew?"

I could almost feel Mammon shrugging. "Well, we've all been through worse."

"Touche. I hope Lysa figures out Char isn’t at the Slytherin Common Room before curfew.” 

“If anyone can handle curfew after hours, it’s Lysa.” 

I felt them both approach us for good measure, tucking the blanket over us both, I suppose, before they went to their dormitories. Their voices died down at the stairwell.

Tonks was right, though. Being out of my dormitory past curfew would already cause me trouble. Being out past curfew in a _different_ common room? Double whammy. For once, though, I was willing to get in trouble for this, and it slowly dawned on my half-asleep self why. I finally knew the answer to my thought a while ago, on why Levi gave me all these feelings, on why I found everything he did adorable, and why anything involving him just felt like the world being right: 

Levi was my home. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello, everybody! We bring to you a _very_ early update this time around! xD I wanted to challenge myself to finish this chapter on Levi Day for #OBEYMEmber. Thankfully, we succeeded, and this is now up for your consumption! :3 Hurray for Leviastans! xD 
> 
> One thing that I enjoyed about this chapter was the multiple Dear Evan Hansen references I placed. A _loooot_ of the general idea and feel from this chapter was because I've had a wave of nostalgia listening to DEH all over again, and matching Levi's characteristics with Evan. (If you don't know about the musical, I highly recommend that you listen to it! <3) Levi's such an Evan with all his insecurities, anxieties, and awkwardness, so it absolutely bled into the writing and caused even _more_ angst. There were other references too that aren't DEH-related, if you can catch it. :D
> 
> Also, we may or may not be sorry for all the angst that was placed and the rollercoaster of emotions that was this chapter. ;) But of course, it's absolutely necessary, moving forward, so that we can continue building on Char and Levi's relationships! :3 More angst to come for our other relationships too, so that's something to look forward to? (Or not look forward to, depending on how you look at it? xD)
> 
> ANYWAY, SORRY FOR MY RAMBLE. What do you guys think will happen next? What will happen to Char and Levi now? Do you think Levi realizes what _he_ feels too? Also, what's going to happen to that frozen corridor? Is it something our band of friends will be looking into? Will they be encountering it again soon? What else do you think will happen to Lucifer/Lysa and Mammon/Tonks? 
> 
> We have SOOOO much in store for all of you, and we just can't wait to share it! We hope you enjoyed reading this as much as we did writing! Happy #OBEYMEmber Levi day everybody!
> 
> ~ BLMB & empurple1113


	8. Epiphany

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lysa gets stuck in the Slytherin Common Room waiting for Char, before she realizes her best friend wasn't coming. And to make things worse (or better?), the eldest of the seven brothers tries to make (awkward) conversation - and she finally realizes the truth. 
> 
> Lucifer/ Main Character, some minor Mammon/ Nymphadora Tonks and Leviathan/ Main Character 
> 
> Warning: Minor Cursing.

Imagine my disappointment when, after Mammon and I were panting, _rushing_ to let Char know about our unusual adventure, we stumbled into the Slytherin Common Room (outwitting some first years on the way) to find that she wasn’t in her usual spot. 

“She’s… not here?” 

“That’s really weird.” Mammon looked around, and both our eyes spotted a cow-patterned pillow, recognizing it immediately, “Oi! Belphie!” 

“Ugh, Mammon, you’re so noisy,” the scowl was unmistakable, “Why are you here, and why are you dragging Alicia in your mess, eh?” 

If Mammon wanted to, he could counter it, but he ignored his brothers’ remarks, “Ya seen Char?” he asked, “We have something really important to tell her.”

“Haven’t seen her since supper,” He shrugged and moved across the room, and into a corner near the fireplace. 

“That’s odd.” I said, pursing my lips and turning to Mammon, “She’s not the type to go out of her routine, and if anything, one of us would know where she is.” 

“For all your sakes, I sincerely _hope_ you do.” 

I groaned inwardly - I’d know that voice anywhere, and surely enough, coming from the dormitory stairwell was Lucifer, “I won’t even _ask_ how you two got here,” he started to say, “but what on _earth_ are you doing here?” 

“Looking for Char,” Mammon replied frankly, and for which I was grateful - I didn’t really _feel_ like being the one to answer to Lucifer at that moment, “Oi, Belphie, anything else you remember?” 

There was a yawn from the corner filled with pillows, and the youngest replied, “Oh yeah. I heard Levi’s voice.” 

“Levi?” I asked, turning to Mammon with the intentions of ignoring Lucifer. He was staring at us (or at _me?_ Honestly, I didn’t know anymore) and it was getting harder and harder to remove him from my peripheral vision, “Mammon, if she’s with Levi-”

“Yeah, I know.” He sighed, then turned, “You wait here, Lysa. Lemme see if I can find them.” He looked around, then pointed at the sofa, “You… better stay here in case Char comes back. If she doesn’t come five minutes before curfew, go back to the Gryffindor Common Room.”

“O-Oh, okay.” 

I nodded, but didn’t really feel that comfortable staying at the Slytherin Common Room without Char - I mean, if Asmo was there, or if Belphegor was awake, I’d be more inclined. But Lucifer still had his piercing stare at me, and it was unnerving. 

Eventually, he walked over and I resigned myself to the fact that - yes, we really _will_ need to carry a conversation. _It’s not that bad, actually, but…_

“So, tell me,” he began to say, rubbing his temples. I think he forgets he isn’t prefect _yet_ , “Why _exactly_ are you looking for Char?” 

“Well, we had news for her,” I began to say, knowing Lucifer wasn’t going to stop pestering me until he received decent-enough answers, “But apparently she didn’t come back from dinner.” 

“What do you mean she didn’t come back?”

I could feel my annoyance rising, “Well, she isn’t _here_ ,” I said, maybe a little harshly. Something about him really gets on my nerves sometimes, “And, well, Belphegor said that she left him on the dining table.” 

“But where did she go?” Lucifer’s brows furrowed, “That’s unusual. What did she tell you?” 

“She didn’t tell me _anything_ !” I reclaimed, “Besides, why would you think that _I’d_ know?” I asked. I mean, obviously, if I knew, _I wouldn’t be standing here having this conversation with him, now,_ **_would I_ ** _?_

“W-Well, because in your House, she trusts only you!” He clearly pointed out, gesturing at me, “And so do I!” 

He paused when the words stumbled out of his mouth, and I felt like time stood still. I felt my jaw drop at this information: I mean sure, I knew that he and Char were much closer than I expected them to be, but for him to tell _me_ that he trusts **_me_ ** ? … It was **impossible**.

And yet… _Why did this information give rise to this swelling, hopeful feeling in my heart?_

“... You do?” I asked quietly, after a few moments of processing. 

“I…” Lucifer looked like he was at a loss for words. Well, I couldn’t blame him - I was just as dumbfounded. This didn’t look like information he had intended to share with me, afterall. He was one of the most eloquent people I knew, with a tongue as sharp as a knife. He never seemed to have any trouble telling people what he thought, and he always made sure that nothing embarrassing ever happened to him. It was unusual to see him so… _human_. I’ve never seen him look like he didn’t know what to do. “I mean… You’re…”

This Lucifer felt almost _real_.

“Are you always this articulate?”

“Capable.” He breathed out, huffing at my comment, and making me chuckle a little, “I do believe you’re capable.” He repeated, avoiding my gaze and crossing his arms against his chest.

 _Oh, he’s back_. 

And it was too bad. That Lucifer was almost cute. 

_Almost_. 

“Capable?” I asked, “You trust me just because you think I’m _capable_?” 

“Hm,” he pondered, and glanced at the uninteresting carpets, “Perhaps a _little_ more than just capable. We both know why this is, don’t we?”

 _Ah._ My thoughts flew back to the memory that he was speaking of. 

_How could I forget?_

* * *

On the day we were told that we would be learning how to duel properly, Professor Flitwick was on a long sort of stage, and the second years were crowded on one side, with the Gryffindor and Slytherin third years on the other. We were told they would model the process for us. It wasn’t really a new style of teaching. From across the Great Hall, I could notice Lucifer's ice-cold gaze piercing me and, after our little row near Hagrid's hut, I couldn't really care less.

After a few moments, Professor Flitwick shushed the room, and the buzzing stopped.

"Duelling," He started to say, "Is a formal means of combat where only magical means are used. Expert knowledge on duelling means one applies spells from various classes. Here at Hogwarts, we encourage Duelling as sports of learning, but only to end in disarming your opponent - and ONLY to disarm."

There were some snickers from the third years, and beside me, Levi shook, "Isn't there a LESS violent way of disarming?"

"We're counting on you, Mammon," I said, flashing a grin at the white-haired Hufflepuff on the other side of Levi. 

"As long as you lot aren’t _dying_ , why not?" He smirked. 

"Shh! It's starting!" Char interrupted our banter, eyes on what was going on upon the stage.

Professor Flitwick had called Professor Snape on the stage. They walked from either end of the stage, bowed when they met at the middle, then walked back and took a stance. 

After a few non-verbal spells, they each called on a third year to demonstrate: for Gryffindor, they called on an albino-kid whom I only knew as Ryu; there was no debating who was to represent Slytherin, though, and Lucifer came up to the stage. He was calm, like he always was, and there was a lack of expression on his face, compared to just a few moments ago, when he was glaring at me.

I rolled my eyes, but looked at him again as he took his stance. 

"Flipendo!"

Lucifer was tossed farther back on his side of the stage, and there were several gasps from the Slytherins. Mammon, Levi and Char - all of whom were near me - all remained attentive. _I think we all knew how this was going to end._

As he stood back up, the albino waved at his friends, grinning arrogantly. A small smirk played upon Lucifer's lips. And once he was back on his stance, the albino began to throw spells at him once more. 

“Flipendo!”  
  
“Protego!”

A barrier of energy flew from Lucifer’s wand, dissipating the jinx immediately. 

“Stupefy!”

“Protego!”

Beside me, Mammon shook his head, “Lucifer has a streak in Defense Against the Dark Arts,” he said slowly, “This guy’s an idiot, trying to show off using Lucifer.”

“I said to _disarm_ only!” Flitwick’s voice bellowed in the hall, but the two duellists weren’t having any of it. 

“Incendio!”

I gripped Char’s arm, a wave of worry rushing through me, but just as it was said, water shot out of Lucifer’s wand, drenching the Gryffindor, the stage and sending the Slytherins laughing. The second-years nearest the stage took a hop back to avoid the strength of Lucifer’s _aguamenti._

_Wait, I don’t need to worry about this idiot! He’s already too proud for his own goddamn good._

Before the Gryffindor could get up again, Lucifer - onyx eyes flickering grey like a stormy day - smirked, “Expelliarmus!” 

“Wait-”

_“Petrificus Totalus!”_

The body-binding spell was definitely unnecessary, but it stopped Ryu from getting his wand back through other means. We clapped as Professor Flitwick swirled his wand over Ryu’s unmoving form, rendering him back into his blithering idiocy. That was when I turned to Lucifer, and finally noticed something.

He was… _actually kind of handsome_?

He bent down to return Ryu’s wand, and upon rising, he flipped his hair away from his face. Tired, and slick with sweat, he ran a gloved hand through his hair, making something very heavy fall at the pit of my stomach. _What… What was this feeling?_

“... right, Lysa?” 

“Hm?”

“Lysa!” 

I had barely noticed that Char and Mammon had been talking over me, and when I turned to my best friend, she had glanced in the direction of my gaze, and her eyes could not roll further back into her head. “... Right.” She sighed.

_I’m worried about what inference she made._

“I was saying that the Ryu kid must be some sort of dimwit,” Mammon said, edging closer and nudging my elbows, “I mean, challenging Lucifer is one thing. But did he think he could _actually_ beat him?”

However, our conversation was cut when Flitwick began to head down to the second-years, asking: “Who would like to try their hand with Mr. Liewen?” 

“For everyone to see how Lucifer would kick our butt?” Levi shuddered, “Uh, a big **_no thanks_ **.” 

Char nudged me as well, “It’d be _so_ funny if, out of everyone, Flitwick chose you, right?” 

Thankfully, Flitwick chose a Hufflepuff across the room from us, but before he could even attempt to go onstage, Snape rolled his eyes, “Professor Flitwick, Mister Collins can barely get himself on this stage, much less make proper incantations with his stuttering. Why don’t we choose a well-performing student?” 

I froze as Snape’s eyes found me.

“Perhaps… Miss Elios?”

Both Char and Levi looked at me in worry, but Mammon smirked and clapped my back.

“This is gonna be good, Lysa!” he said, “Don’t fail me!”

_Ugh. Why now?_

I drew my wand as I sighed and ran up to the stage, hoisting myself up perfectly. Professor Flitwick guided me to the edge where, after a few paces, he left me to walk towards the middle, meeting Lucifer before I gave a bow. 

“Scared?” 

I held back my scowl, and instead, smirked at him. 

“Are _you_?” I taunted. 

When we both stood, his eyes narrowed dangerously at me, but I could only grin. Seeing him all riled up quite satisfied me. Getting back to my side of the stage, and standing in position, I waited for him with my wand-hand pointed straight at him, and the other open-palmed as though expecting a physical attack.

The room went quiet for a few moments, before…

_“Expelliarmus!”_

“Protego!”

I easily whisked the red sparks away from me, and awaited the irked Lucifer’s next move. 

_“Aguamenti!”_

_“Finite!”_

I flicked my hand down with fervor, and the water that was erupting from his wand stopped pouring. Behind him, I watched as Snape pursed his lips.

I had to admit, most of my knowledge of spells came from the books my mother wrote. After I realized that she was writing as a witch, I started to pick up all the unique spells she had used in her novels.

Most of them seemed unusual, and not something I’d use in daily life (I mean, turning leaves into chairs? Not really). But, it seemed I learned more defensive spells from them than anything, and I couldn’t figure out what spell to cast against Lucifer in that duel. 

Something heavy fell into the pit of my stomach when I saw Lucifer smirk, his onyx eyes flickering a dangerous crimson, before he uttered his next spell:

“ _Atmos.”_

A thick, black smoke began to emit from his wand, all sweeping straight towards me. Before I could cast a counterspell, I heard him utter a second spell, which caught me off-guard.

“ _Cavea capsa!”_

Suddenly, I felt like I was trapped in an invisible box, with the thick, grey fog enveloping me. I coughed a few times, and the cold air was drying my throat. _Is this guy trying to kill me?_ I gripped my wand tightly, before I remembered that I actually _knew_ what to do.

I only had one spell that could, maybe, change the tide. _It was worth a try._

“Finite incantatem!” 

I felt the square walls break, but the fog was still around me. I began to make large, spinning motions with my hand encouraging the smoke to follow, and once I could feel a spiking energy, I cast my spell:

“ _Anima Leo!”_

There were several gasps as a lion’s roar was heard all around the Great Hall. The clouds I had spun had then begun to morph into a large lion made out of air and clouds. The lion stood tall, and mighty, eyes fixed on Lucifer, a growl coming out from its mouth. Lucifer pointed his wand straight at it, beads of sweat forming upon his forehead, and with one more roar, the lion began to charge. 

With Lucifer pointing at the smoke-made lion, I cast my last spell: _“_ Expelliarmus!”

The lion disappeared with a puff, and I caught Lucifer’s wand from the air as it flew out of his hands. For a long time, the hall was silent. Then, from the Gryffindors erupted the loudest of applause as I gasped at what had just happened and turned around in shock. 

I didn’t realize it either - but it looked like I won. 

Across me, Lucifer crossed his arms against his chest, and I gripped his wand in my left hand. Cautiously, I walked towards him, and he opened his palm, as though seeking his wand. 

I smiled a bit, and placed his wand carefully into his hand, my fingertips touching his. 

“Take care of this better, won’t you?”

* * *

“Alicia.” 

Lucifer’s voice broke me out of the memory I had recalled, and he was looking at me with those eyes again - but this time, his expression was soft, and curious. He looked like there was something he wanted to learn about me, that he hasn’t yet. In fact, he hasn’t looked at me with derision since we got back this term. _Wait… Was I staring at him again?_

“... Is there something you wanted to say?” He asked, breaking the silence between us. His eyebrow was raised, and he was anticipating an answer.

I looked around: Belphegor was clearly asleep and snoring, and the other Slytherins were distant and clearly avoiding us - well, we _did_ have that effect on people, after all. _It was now or never_. 

“Y-Yes, actually.” I said, searching for my words properly, “I’ve been meaning to ask you… about this summer.” 

He shook his head, “You’d have to be more specific than that,” he started to say, “There were a lot of things that could have happened-”

“I knew it was you who was writing me back and not Mammon, Lucifer, you don’t have to hide it anymore.” 

His eyes suddenly widened, and slowly, he turned to me. The shock in his dark eyes just proved what I already knew: he _did_ write all those letters to me last summer, and he did it on purpose, “H-How… How long have you known?” 

“Since the first letter.” I chuckled, “I know how my friend sounds like, you know.” 

There seemed to be some relief that flooded him upon hearing my words, and he ran a hand through his hair, “I see. And I suppose Char already knows?”

“None of them do.” 

His eyes widened at my statement, and I could feel a rush of heat rising to my cheeks, “I-I…” I seemed to lose the initial fire that I had in me, as even I struggled to find the words I wanted to say, “I figured you might not want your brothers to see you differently. And, well… Before I said anything to anyone, I just…” I drew a deep breath, and sighed, “I just wanted to know _why_ you did it. Why, Lucifer?” 

I looked up at him earnestly, searching his onyx eyes for an answer. 

This time, with unwavering fervor, he did not tear his gaze from me when he answered:

“I thought you deserved answers.”

I felt a rush of emotion rise within my chest, and I was pretty sure my cheeks were burning red. _What is this feeling?_ _Am I_ ** _glad_** _he wrote to me?_ This was a whole different side to Lucifer that I was seeing, and I had to say, it was less annoying than usual. 

“W-Well… Thank you.” I finally managed, biting my lip and giving him a small smile, “I… had a difficult summer, and having to write to someone was… nice.” 

He coughed uncertainly, “W-Well, writing to you was a pleasure as well,” he said softly, “You actually have a better reading of the world than you show. It’s good to know that taking my time to write you a correspondence wasn’t all a waste.” 

So he _wanted_ to write to me? **_When did this happen_ ** **?** Since when were Lucifer and I in speaking terms? Why did this matter to him, all of a sudden? Last I checked, he didn’t like me because I was the very epitome of a Gryffindor, and it annoyed him that someone would reflect the values of their House so much. This wasn’t what Lucifer and I were like at all and yet-!

And yet… _Why does it all feel so_ **_right_ **?

I opened my mouth to speak, because I wanted _very much_ to know why it mattered to Lucifer that I got a response, and that I were to write back to him, but the moment I did, the Slytherin Common Room door opened, and-

  
“Ooh! WHAT’S THIS?” 

The pretty fifth-born of their brothers, with his strawberry-blonde hair came bounding towards us, looking at both me and Lucifer with his shimmering eyes. One look told me that he was understanding what was going on way more than Lucifer and I did. 

“What’s this, Lucifer and _Alicia_?” he giggled, pointing at the both of us, “I just came in because Beel was outside but I didn’t know there was something better going on _in_ _here_?” 

“Beel?” 

If Belphegor had been awake for the whole duration of our conversation, he probably failed to make it known because the sleepy seventh-born finally stood from his corner of pillows, and made haste to the Common Room door, a dorky smile on his face, “Beel’s here~” 

“There’s absolutely nothing going on, Asmodeus.” Lucifer’s voice shook me back into our own situation. He was back to his usual demeanor, and he was scowling at his younger brother, “Alicia and I were simply looking for Char. As you can see, she’s not in her usual spot.”

“Y-Yeah.” I nodded in agreement, knowing that my faltering voice was proof enough, “We were just looking for Char, that’s all.” 

“Yes, sure. Because looking for her required googly-eyeing each other, absolutely.” The younger Slytherin teased, making a rush of pink rise in my cheeks again, “That was TOTALLY what you two were doing here, mhmm.”

I looked at Lucifer, and it seemed that though he closed his eyes, to maybe regain his composure (or maybe his _dignity,_ I don’t know for sure), hints of pink were also tinting his cheeks. I didn’t know what to expect next, and Asmo was looking at us with that sly grin, expectantly. 

“I.. uh.” I cleared my throat, and Lucifer finally looked at me again, his gaze soft, slightly amused, “I think I better go and take Beel. I don’t want us to get detention.” 

“Okay!” Asmodeus happily bounded towards me, jumping into an embrace. Naturally, I hugged him back. Besides, Asmo was never short on affection, “Good night, Alicia!” 

Then, pulling away from him, I nearly leaned in to embrace Lucifer as well but stopped when my arms were mid-air. _Wait!_ **_What in the world am I doing?!_ ** It seemed like Lucifer had the same realization as he stopped himself from leaning into me, and we both stared at each other, breathless, before I awkwardly offered a hand for him to shake, “G-Good night.” 

“Y-Yes, right. Good night.” He took my hand and gave it one firm shake. 

Maybe it was just me, but his hand lingered within mine, our fingertips taking forever to release the other completely. And it was then that I realized one important thing:

I actually didn’t want to let go.

* * *

I had “forgotten” to talk about what had happened that night in the Slytherin Common Room, and thankfully, when I was finally reunited with my small little group, Tonks and Mammon were finally plotting new pranks, and Levi and Char were already making a chart about music and their suggestions. Instead, I brought up the Cold Room, and of course, since we had absolutely no idea what it was or why it was that the teachers and staff lied about the room getting repairs, we decided to visit the school’s sea of knowledge: the Library. 

I arrived with Tonks, who immediately occupied the only seat next to me. As I pulled out my journal, I noticed a Ravenclaw boy about three tables in front of us, and I immediately nudged the Hufflepuff beside me. 

“Tonks.” I whispered, jerking my head lightly in the boy’s direction, “That’s… That’s _Simeon d’Angelo,_ right?” 

Her hair turned an excited orange shade, and almost squealed if I didn’t smack her right at the arm. She hissed, but instead lowered her head onto the table, “... _Shit_ , Lysa.” She mumbled, eyeing me afterwards, “The rumors are true. He hides in the library.” 

I chuckled and sat next to her, leaning close, “I’ve never seen him this close.”

Simeon d’Angelo was a campus favorite: he was a fourth year Ravenclaw student that all the teachers loved, and all the girls fawned over - obviously, Tonks and I included. He was kind, and charming, and he would usually give an endearing smile, a smile that could probably heal the sick and bring about world-peace. His hair was getting longer now, dark brown curls gracing the sides of his face and his chocolate colored skin was pristine and glittering in the dim lights. 

“What’re you two looking at?”

Tonks and I had failed to notice that Levi, Mammon and Char had arrived. Glancing at the direction of our gaze, Char looked and immediately turned back, bending over the table and whispering to us, “You didn’t _tell_ me he was here!”

“W-We just found out!” I whispered back, a faint rush of pink rising in my cheeks. 

As you can tell, Simeon was a pretty big deal to us. He was, what was probably called, a _perfect gentleman_. Nobody escaped his charms. 

Levi’s brow furrowed, “I don’t see anything or anyone worth of that reaction.” 

I watched my best friend flush, then mumble incoherently before hiding her head behind a book. Mammon, on the other hand, sat on the other side of Levi, “Wipe those dumb looks off your faces, we have a serious issue on our hands.”

“R-Right.” Tonks nodded, but giggled nervously, “Wait, though. I asked for some help. He should be here in a bit.”

“Sorry, sorry! I lost track of time!” 

When I looked up, a familiar face greeted me: flaming red hair and freckles? Ah. I knew this face very well.

“Charlie!”

“Shhhh!”

“Sorry.” I winced, but stood to throw my arms around the second-born Weasley brother, “Nice to see you again!” 

“Thanks!” He occupied the seat next to Tonks, “Tonks here said you found something.” 

“She _did_ ?” Mammon didn’t look too happy, and I could tell that the grin on his face was faltering, “I thought this was a _private_ matter?”

“Oh, come off it, we need all the help we can get,” Char waved a hand dismissively, “What do you know about the Cold Room, Charlie?”

We all sat down, then leaned in. Charlie looked around for a bit, and then lowered his voice.

“My brother overheard the professors talking about the room,” he said warningly, brows furrowed, “He said that Professor McGonagall spoke about it being “stronger this time” and asking about “what if it happens again”. From what we made of it, the room looks like one of the enchantments at Hogwarts.” 

“So,” Levi started to say, “You’re saying that if we find more information about the rooms at Hogwarts, then we could find out what this room is?”

Charlie nodded.

“That’s it then. Let’s find all the books relating to Hogwarts, its enchantments and how it was built,” I said, looking around the table, “Take notes of anything that could help.” 

It took us most of the day to gather books, and by the time supper was starting to draw near, Mammon had fallen asleep on the books, Charlie had gone to meet Gavin for the plans for our recruitment and I was just at the point of exhaustion, “It’s no use. We need more direction than this.” I groaned. 

“I agree.” Tonks said, looking at me, then at Char and Levi across us, “We need a big brain for something like this.”

Just then, Levi’s eyes lit up, “A… big brain, you say?” he asked slowly.

“Mhm.” Char replied from beside him, looking like she’d seen many ghosts, “None of us are Ravenclaws, as you can see, and even the Library has so many secrets, we can’t possibly know them all.” 

Levi looked at the three of us, then all of a sudden, stood up, “I’ll be right back.” 

The three of us exchanged worried glances, but then followed his movements with our eyes. Levi went over at the far end of the library, where the student who helped out Madam Pince would usually stay. The student-librarian changed every year because nobody had risen to Madam Pince’s standards of book care, strictness and bibliophilia. However, when Levi headed back, I realized that he was being followed by - much to my surprise - a Ravenclaw student. 

“W-Wait,” Char began to say, “Is that who I think it is?” 

When they arrived at the table, I realized _just_ why the Ravenclaw was familiar: his blond hair was parted in a way I can recognize, and the manner in which he carried himself reminded me _so much_ of the person I was trying to forget. 

“My brother has told me your plight,” the blond said gesturing at the books when he arrived, “And I can assure you, I’ve read all of those before, and you won’t find your answer there. So, in light of recent events, I’d like to offer my services and we can work together to figure this out.” 

“S-Sure.” Tonks said, with a nod, side-glancing at me and Char worriedly. It was natural for her to be a bit defensive - we liked keeping our businesses to ourselves, afterall. 

“Ah, forgive my forwardness, we haven’t been formally introduced,” he offered each of us a hand, which we shook, “ _Satan Etoile_ , the fourth born of the family, at your service.” He said with a small smile. 

“And what you’ve seen, which you can’t find in any of these recorded books, is actually a _Cursed Vault._ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Author's Note: Spells Casted  
> **Atmos (Weather-Conjuring Charm) - casts a thick layer of fog or mist  
> **Cavea Capsa (Encaging Hex) - casts an invisible box or cage at a target  
> **Animo Leo (Transfiguration Spell) - animates loose forms of matter, like smoke or sand, and transforms it into a lion
> 
> X.o.X
> 
> Hello, hello! This was definitely unplanned, but guess what? HERE WE ARE! ^_^ We are back and we hope you enjoyed this new chapter, half of which was actually drafted much before the chapter was even thought of! Hahaha! 
> 
> I know that slow-burns can be super frustrating, (trust me, @BLMB was already saying "JUST KISS" when she first read this) but I guarantee you all that it will be so. freaking. worth. it! Hahaha. I personally wanted to showcase just how awkward first loves can be, especially if it was the kind where you weren't friends - and in fact, were actually enemies. 
> 
> And yes, hopefully, the nods to the OG Harry Potter books and movies were noticed in this chapter. We have also done our best to replicate the usual way of creating spells, so if you're interested in what the new spells do, we'll be writing them in an author's note like the one above. There are a lot more of that as you continue to read our upcoming chapters~
> 
> ANYWAY. This being said: who do you think will realize their feelings first? Lucifer, or Alicia? What will they eventually find out about that cold room? And what do you think about our pairings so far, who would YOU stan: Lucifer & Alicia, Mammon & Tonks or Leviathan & Char? (And on that note, who do you think would be confessing first? ;) ) 
> 
> We are definitely just EXCITED to be sharing our thoughts and story with you! ^_^ Thank you so much for reading and if you found this story through Discord, the OM Facebook Page or Tumblr, please send us a comment! We'd like to know your insights so far! 
> 
> SOMETHING BIG IS COMING UP! <3 Hope y'all are ready for it ;)
> 
> ~ BLMB & empurple1113


	9. Bludger Me, Bludger You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As more brothers join the team on the hunt for information on the Vaults, Char finds herself momentarily hit by other responsibilities. With the first game of Quidditch coming right up, she hears just the right voice to put her heart in the right place.
> 
> Warning: Major Cursing

It was definitely a brilliant move on Levi’s part to drag his younger brother, Satan, into the matter of the frozen corridor - I mean the _Cursed Vault_ … Whatever that meant. Satan knew the library like the palm of his own hand, and I swear sometimes we would end up in areas in the library I had never been to before. You learned something new every day, after all, right? He had us taking turns in pairs or threes to visit the library and look through any book that mentioned any information about the Vaults. The catch was, since he was the Library Assistant for two years now, he had some access to the Restricted Section - meaning anyone who would be paired with Satan could actually go visit that part of the library with him. 

I heard from Lysa that it had been her most of the time, and that Satan actually got her to switch times with Mammon once because he absolutely _hated_ the idea of spending time with _just Mammon._ Well, I couldn’t exactly blame him. Afterall, it was only Lysa’s pestering that pushed Mammon to do better than he could, anyway.

But I felt guilty that I couldn’t help with the Vaults as much because, well, Quidditch Season was about to start. And the Slytherin Captain, Leah, would have my head if I so much as _thought_ of anything other than the upcoming match with Ravenclaw. 

Leah was a force to be reckoned with. Her focus and dedication in everything she did was truly remarkable. She was in the same year as Bill Weasley, meaning she was two years older than us. Aside from being the Seeker of our team, she was also immensely talented in Care of Magical Creatures. Whenever I'd hear the higher years mention her, they'd always talk about how she had a love for _any_ magical creature she met and would manage to befriend them too.

Not only that, but Leah also had an affinity for the arts, particularly with painting and sculpting. She'd mostly spend her free time in open spaces. Sometimes, I'd see her painting various landscapes. Other times, I'd see her making her own sculptures. Anyone who had that talent amazed me really, as art was _never_ something I was good with. The fact that she was good with all that _and_ with Quidditch? Sign me up for some talent, please, cause _dang_. It was no wonder that boys and girls alike would have a crush on her and want to get to know her better. She was a heartthrob in her own right. 

Her strategies in Quidditch would always focus on how the team could work better cohesively, and how the strength of each member could be highlighted, one way or another. When I started playing for the team last year, she noted how one of my strengths was my agility. I think that was the reason why she made me a Chaser for the team. In particular, I was assigned the position of 'shooting' Chaser, meaning all the other Chasers would usually pass to me, and it was up to me to lead the Quaffle to its hoops. While it was something I feel I was genuinely good at, of course that meant I was almost _always_ attacked by a Bludger.

So yeah, Quidditch season was _fun_ , and I was _so_ excited to ~~once more be attacked by very painful Bludgers~~ lead my team to victory. 

Now, imagine my astonishment when after worrying day after day for the match, I come down to the Great Hall and find that Levi was dressed head-to-toe in green and silver paraphernalia, complete with flaglets, a green sign board, and a scarf. I had to do a double-take because I was _so_ familiar with seeing him in yellow, that my eyes needed adjusting with everything he was wearing at the moment. I kid you not, this boy did _not_ hold back with his Slytherin merchandise. It was adorable as hell. 

"Char!" he exclaimed excitedly. "Good morning! Ready to kick some blue butt?"

_Oh no, he's doing it again. He's being cute without him realizing it. Calm yourself, Char, goddamn it._ **_Be still, my heart._ **

He walked me to the edge of the Slytherin table, and sat across me. One by one, my friends began to claim seats that weren’t theirs. It was like this almost every time we had a match. 

"Levi!" I couldn't help but grin at him. "You--! How…? 

Mammon walked over, chuckling at us, "He got it over the summer. He said he wanted to _fully_ support you."

“Yes, I got him everything he asked for.” Lucifer sat on the spot next to Levi, who looked like a proud little bean. “Of course, I’ll gladly help anyone who would want to support Slytherin.” 

_Figures_. Leave it to Lucifer to stir anyone -- including his brothers -- to the Slytherin direction. Professor Snape would be proud. 

"Breakfast?" Tonks added, holding up a plate of pancakes she nicked from the Hufflepuff table. It was smothered with maple syrup and cut chaotically in different directions. 

I felt my stomach gurgle just at the thought: on an ordinary day, pancakes would sound _absolutely amazing_. They were my absolute _favorite_ breakfast menu, along with a glass of iced coffee. But today, just looking at them made me feel queasy.

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you, Tonks.” Lysa had just arrived at the table from her own House’s spot, bringing her croissant on a plate. Naturally, though, she would know. She’d seen me in other nerve-wracking situations around this time of the day, “She’s too nervous to eat something that heavy. Here.” She sat next to me, handed me a glass of milk, before she looked closely at the Hufflepuff across me and squealed, “Levi!” 

“U-Uhm, yeah?” He looked nervous, and frankly, Lysa had that effect on people. She had this strong gaze that had the tendency to be intimidating, especially if you weren’t used to it. He shifted in his seat, unused to the attention he was suddenly given. She was looking him up and down before she squealed again.

“You look _so cute_!” Her comment immediately made Levi flush, but that was bound to happen. The only person I knew who could look more proud than Levi about him being covered from head to toe in Slytherin merchandise was Lysa. “Aw, I want to support Char too~! Tell me, how’d you get all that? The flags and stuff?”

Next to Levi, Lucifer stiffened. 

I bit my lip, resisting a chuckle - because I’m sure his brothers (and Tonks) noticed that change in his demeanor. I didn’t know if I was going to tell Lysa that all of it came from Lucifer: I didn’t know what kind of reaction she’d have or how she'd handle it. I mean, I knew she could, but… Knowing how she generally was around Lucifer, her reaction would probably be a mix of anger, embarrassment, awkward, and _Oh shit, I totally walked into that, didn't I?_ Was it really worth it to let her go through that right now?

And while I was still debating with myself, Mammon - the ever decisive, ever-so-honest boy that he was - decided to take up this yolk himself. 

“He got it from Lucifer, of course.” 

Welp, looks like Mammon got it covered, then. I watched my best friend turn beet red, and across her, Lucifer had hints of pink in his cheeks too. To be honest, this was likely the _best case scenario_ with these two. Whatever his motive was, Mammon chose well to be the one to speak.

Lysa’s voice was a small, uncharacteristic one when she finally decided to talk, “Oh.” 

I almost snorted. _It looks like we're back to the usual programming, then._ And so the rest of breakfast proceeded like it normally did (or at least as normal as it got for all of us). The only difference was that Lucifer was with us this time around. He wasn't one to join our merry band of friends (as Tonks usually called us) for breakfast, but special occasions like these made him do so. He'd claim it was because he wanted to 'support Slytherin to the best of his ability', but I think that wasn't his only intention. For one thing, there were the glances he kept giving Lysa that she kept returning, but hey, let's pretend I didn't see those. 

It’s not like they have been stealing glances at each other, feigning hatred and bantering for at least a year and a half, of course they haven’t.

Although, to be fair, Levi was stealing similar glances at me, and I could feel the blush forming in my cheeks. I already was nervous about the match, but somehow, the thought of Levi spectating in the stands (with his Merlin-who-knew how much merchandise) was a comforting thought. The thought of my friends and their undying support in me was enough to boost any low sense of morale I had that morning. I just… had to do **my** part, of course.

After breakfast, on days like these, I was usually walked all the way to the locker room by Lysa and Levi, with a combination of our band of friends. This time, however, Mammon was busy busking for bets, and Lucifer refused to have “terrible” seats, so instead, it was just the three of us walking down to the sides of the pitch, away from those bustling into the stands. 

I could feel my heart beating extremely loudly in my chest, and I felt my anxiety about the game rising. I fiddled with my fingers as we continued walking to the locker room. Unsurprisingly, Lysa had noticed this and put a hand on my shoulder, "Hey, you'll be fine. Hell, you'll do _amazing_. I can feel it." 

"And we'll be cheering on you every step of the way!" Levi added with that dorky grin I’ve grown to -dare I say it?- _love_. 

I couldn't help but smile. Leave it to both of them to lift my spirits, no matter how bloody nervous I felt. "Th-thanks, guys. I appreciate it. I really do." 

It was at that point I noticed a familiar older Gryffindor's face coming towards us. Lysa's huge wave at him only confirmed who my guess was -- it was the Gryffindor Captain, Gavin Qi. At times like these, I wasn't entirely surprised to see him. Before the games, there were always other non-playing Quidditch players around to wish us luck. What was interesting about seeing Gavin this time, though, was the fact that he was coming directly _from_ the Slytherin locker room. 

I couldn't help but wonder why this was the case. Was Gavin really _that_ invested in our team to wish us all good luck before the game? Was there someone worth visiting for him there? I wasn't entirely sure, and I could only be left guessing what in the world he went to our locker room for. Then again, come to think of it, the Gryffindor Captain always seemed to be present in our Quidditch practices. I had always thought it was for strategizing, as that could be what he does think of things for his team. Perhaps he was the type to observe other teams then create his own strategy based on that. 

But now it made me think… yes, he could have legitimately been just the observant type, but what if there was something more he was looking for whenever we had our practice? _Hmmmm, I'd have to mention this to Lysa sometime._ Maybe she'd have a theory on what went on in her Captain's head. 

He wore a huge smile on his face when he saw us, but it wasn't like the usual ones that he'd give when we'd randomly see him in the Great Hall or in the corridors. I knew that smile upon _instinct_. It was similar to those my moms would give to one another when they were happy with one another. It was a genuine smile paired up with a genuine look of love, and I knew for certain he had come from seeing that person he loved. _Was this person in the Slytherin locker room?_ **_That_** I couldn’t know for sure. Maybe he met up with them along the way from the locker room, I wouldn't really know, but one thing was for sure -- _Gavin Qi was in love_ , and the way he smiled and waved back at us could live to tell that tale. 

"Always one step ahead fraternizing with the enemy, huh, Alicia?" he had said, his smile still very much evident as it tugged on the corners of his lips.

Lysa, ever the frank and honest person that she was, ended up replying with the same thought I had in mind, "You’re one to talk -- seeing as you're coming _from_ the Slytherin locker room, hm?" His blush after my best friend said this was unmistakable. _I totally called it_. He almost certainly _was_ seeing someone from the Slytherin team. The only question now was _who?_

Quickly changing the topic (but still blushing ever so profusely), he then looked at me and said, "Well, good luck with your match, Char. I'm positive Leah's going to lead all of you to victory," he said, with a firm nod to my direction. 

"Thanks Gavin. We'll do our best." 

He waved his goodbye as we continued our walk to the locker room. When he was out of earshot, I nudged my best friend. "He was a different kind of cheerful just then, huh?" 

“It’s nice to see him that way,” She nodded, agreeing as she watched his retreating back before turning to me, “You’ve got an idea about it, haven’t you?”

“Well…” I trailed off. I wasn’t sure how she’d handle the information if she knew that Gavin could be in love with a member of the Slytherin team - she was just as protective of him as he was of her. But her next statement told me she had figured my thoughts out. _Typical_. 

“I heard from Charlie that he’s been going to your practices,” Lysa finally admitted, turning to me, “He said that something happened during the last game of _last_ season, but…” She frowned, “He also told me Gavin would tell me when he’s ready.” 

I gaped at this information: Lysa was like Gavin’s little sister, after all. Since Lysa was the eldest, she had no other person to stand up for her like a sibling until Gavin came along. The only other person I could trust to keep her out of trouble in her own house was Gavin - and they had been growing closer to the point of spending some weekends under this wisteria tree on the grounds. It came as a surprise to me that he’d hide anything of grave importance to her at all.

“Aren’t you two going to the tree for, uh, your usual time together?” Levi was now the one who asked, also curious about the odd turn of events.

“We are, this weekend,” the brunette beside me replied, “Maybe I’ll bring it up, but-” her golden eyes twinkled as she turned to me, “I _think_ I have a hunch. Let’s see if I'll be right.” 

The rest of the walk to the locker room was uneventful. Once we got there, I gave my two friends the biggest hugs, as I continued mentally preparing myself for the match that would occur in a few minutes. 

Most of the team was already making their preparations when I arrived, so I began mine as well. Once we were all finished, Leah had gathered all of us to the center of the locker room. She began talking, "Okay, everybody, all our weeks of practicing is finally going to pay off right now -- the first match of the year. I know we were short of a victory last year in our last match, but this is a new year entirely. We have some familiar faces in our team, and some new ones as well. We're back, and we're in it to win.

"We've practiced hard, and we've practiced well, and all of you have done amazingly. Our practices were no walks in the park, and this match will not be one either. I'm sure the Ravenclaw team prepared themselves just as much as we did, but we have something more than they do. We have the drive. We have the passion. But most of all -- we have the will to win. We each make the other stronger, and together, we're all working pieces in a puzzle. Remember our routines. Remember our practices. Quidditch isn't a solo sport. We come in this as a team, and we will win this as a team."

She raised her broom to cheer, "FOR THE GLORY OF SLYTHERIN!" 

We all raised our brooms in turn. "FOR THE GLORY OF SLYTHERIN!" 

* * *

I had to hand it to Leah. Not only was she an excellent team captain, but also, she had great pep-talking skills. She knew exactly what to say to get our hearts racing, and the team spirit thriving. I could just _feel_ the adrenaline rushing within me as we headed out to the Quidditch pitch. The crowds cheering on our team helped too, and I couldn't help but smile at all the support we had. _I can't let any of them down._

Hopping on my broom, I flew to the center of the pitch where all Chasers were meant to stay at the beginning of the match. Much to my surprise, when I turned to my right, I saw a familiar speck of purple ( _Damn, Lucifer wasn't wrong when he said he'd be getting excellent seats!_ ) holding a sign so big it almost covered his entire body and face. The sign, painted in green and silver, read, "YOU GOT THIS, CHAR!"

I could feel my cheeks reddening, because _goddammit_ Levi was doing it _again_. Why did he have to be so cute _and_ sweet at the same time? Especially with him giving his all cheering me on like that? I had absolutely no excuse to lose now. None. **_Zero._ **

I couldn't dwell on the thought much longer, however, because I heard the loud resounding whistle Madame Hooch blew to signify the start of the game. As she threw the Quaffle into the air, I quickly made a dive for it to catch it, so that we could get a chance at first goal. Thankfully, the Ravenclaws missed the opening, so I was able to pass it to the nearest Chaser, Rosie Davies. We both then began flying in parallel to one another, and she passed the Quaffle back to me. I tossed it back to her, and she did the same back to me, until we eventually hit the Keeper's hoops. It was a strategy Leah had taught us over our recent practices -- she said it was a common maneuver from the Sumbawanga Sunrays. 

When Rosie had passed it back to me, I knew that meant I would be the one to shoot the Quaffle, since I was closest to the Keeper. Noticing that the Keeper was in the center hoop, I quickly swerved to the left and shot the Quaffle with all my might, hoping the Keeper wouldn't manage to see it coming.

"We have Levana with the first goal of the season! That's ten points to Slytherin!" the commentator announced. His voice seemed _awfully_ familiar, though. Was that… _Satan?_ How in the world he ended up being into Quidditch enough to be the commentator, I have no idea, but his voice was quickly overpowered by the ruckus cheering that came from the Slytherin side of the Quidditch pitch. I was almost positive it was my friends cheering the loudest, and I couldn't help but feel delighted at the thought. 

Even so, my victory was short-lived because I could already see the Ravenclaw Beaters eyeing me with great interest. And no, it wasn't the _good_ kind of interest. It was the kind that looked like they were ready to murder me, higly likely with a Bludger. I shuddered at the thought, knowing full well the feeling of Bludgers making very hard and painful contact with my bones. It was _not_ fun, _especially_ when you were always the other team's Number 1 target. 

Looking around, I heaved a sigh of relief as there were _no_ Bludgers present just yet. At least this way, I could make myself more useful. _Who knew when those blasted things would come back?_ I noticed a Ravenclaw Chaser flying straight towards their hoops and decided to make a run for it (er… fly for it) to intercept his pass. Sure, tackling would've worked, but at least with the intercept, I'd have more time to fly to where he was. I saw one of my teammates try to tackle him, but damn, the Chaser was _fast_. I leaned forward, urging my broom to try matching his speed and go even faster. Instead of aiming for the Chaser, I flew to the general direction he would pass the Quaffle to. 

Just as he released the Quaffle, everything felt like it moved in slow motion as I saw who he was aiming for. 

I quickly opened my arms, ready to catch the Quaffle before it went to the Chaser near me. I was nervous that I may have overestimated my flight for this intercept, but the Quaffle landing in my hands only confirmed that I was right. There was a loud cheer again from the Slytherin side of the pitch, and I allowed it to motivate myself more, so that we could score again. With the amount of momentum I had, I used it to fly my broom to the sky before turning to head towards our hoops again. From the corners of my eyes, I could see my teammates backing me up, and I knew they were thinking what I was thinking. 

There was a quick flash of blue as a Ravenclaw Chaser attempted to tackle me too, but one of my teammates covered for me and tackled them back, until they were both out of my way. It was down to me and our other Chaser, Sebastian, now. We both flew towards the hoops, until it was time for me to shoot. Unfortunately for me, the other two Ravenclaw Chasers were also close by, and were ready to stop that. Once I was within close range of their Keeper, I knew the Keeper's eyes were on me, as well as the other two Chasers. I wouldn't have a chance if I shot the Quaffle now, so I did another move we had practiced. 

"SEB, HEADS UP!" I said, throwing the Quaffle above me. Thankfully, he had gotten my cue. He flew above me and caught the Quaffle, then quickly shot it at one of the free hoops.

"Robins gives us another ten points for Slytherin!" Satan declared through his microphone. I grinned. We were _definitely_ off to a good start. I looked at where my friends were, and they were all clapping and yelling as loud as they could in happiness. Levi was waving his sign as high as possible, and I felt myself blush. I wasn't even sure what bit of him I was finding cute at that time -- his unusually large sign of support, his Slytherin merchandise, or his cheers that I swear I could hear from where I was on the pitch. Then again, who was I trying to kid, really, considering I found every bit of him cute. _Ah, what the hell._

Unfortunately, at this point, I could feel the rage building up from the Ravenclaw team, and I saw a Bludger making its way around the pitch. The Ravenclaw Captain was the most furious one, seeing as I had _just_ scored, intercepted, then assisted for yet another goal. I could hear her yelling, "SOMEBODY _BLUDGER_ HER ALREADY!" and pointing at me. _Shit_. Looks like my death wish had been officially declared now. Especially with the Bludgers making their appearance. 

_No Bludgers have hit you, Char. The game has barely begun,_ I reassured myself. Sure, it would mean I was a point of interest with the Beaters, moving forward, but there was no knowing _when_ a Bludger would hit me. I'd just have to keep going, keep avoiding, and hopefully save myself from Bludger beatings. 

Just then, a Ravenclaw Chaser whizzed past me with the Quaffle. She was heading to their goal posts now, ready to pass to another Chaser, so they could score. I was already tailing her, and my teammates were doing the same with the other two Chasers. An intercept from me would've been too predictable, as I already did that the previous round. Instead, I flew as close as possible, so that I could do a tackle. 

But before I could even manage that, I heard a very loud **_THWACK_** , and my brain instinctively knew that it was a Bludger. Not only that, but the whizzing confirmed that it was headed **_my_ ** direction. _DAMN IT!_ I was absolutely unsure of where it would hit me, and I was afraid that the moment I'd turn around to check, I'd already be doomed. What was I gonna do? I was a goner either way. 

I leaned away from the Chaser I was tailing, so that I could perhaps miss the mark of the Bludger's aim, but as I did so, I heard another loud, resounding **_THWACK_ ** coming from behind me. _Did one of our Beaters pull through? Was I momentarily saved?_ I risked turning around to check what had happened, and my instincts were correct -- our Beater saved me! Offering him my sincerest bow of thanks, I quickly turned around again to try and maneuver my way to the Ravenclaw Chaser, but I was too late. 

The Chaser made a pass to her teammate, who sadly was able to evade our Keeper’s advances. I heard a loud _ding_ as the Ravenclaws managed to score their first goal this season. "A valiant effort from Walker! That's ten points for Ravenclaw!" Satan announced.

While a part of me was upset that I wasn't able to stop the Chaser before she scored, I was mostly thankful my ass was saved from being hit from a Bludger _way_ too early. Of course, it was too early to tell for the rest of the game, but at least at that point in time, I was safe. I could only hope that would continue to be the case. 

One of my teammates then received the Quaffle from our Keeper and began flying towards our hoops. She was faced with another problem, unfortunately, because she was now being tailed by two Ravenclaw Chasers, which made sense, considering we were leading by ten points now. It may have been less of a lead from before they scored, but it was still a lead that their Captain very visibly disagreed with. (Yes, she was still yelling different things for them to do.) I quickly made my way to our side of the pitch, so that I would be ready to catch the Quaffle and shoot it. 

I could already see the other remaining Ravenclaw Chaser tailing me too, but my concern was with my teammate: Rosie looked like she would be tackled at any moment. The Chasers were closing in on her, and she had no other means of escaping them. I was too far to try saving the Quaffle from her now, so I could only hope that -- _Shit, they tackled her._ I had easily spoken too soon. Both Chasers tackled her, and the Quaffle quickly fell from within her grasp. Damn it, if I was only closer to her, I could've attempted to catch it from her. 

My only hope was that Sebastian was near her and ready. 

I continued flying to our hoops, still hoping that Sebastian was able to pull through. My logic was that since the Ravenclaw Chaser was still following me, it was possible that possession didn't go back to them just yet. We could still have a chance. My suspicion was confirmed when I saw a speck of green from my peripheral vision. It didn't seem to be a Beater, since I didn't hear the annoying whizzing of the Bludger near me. It was very likely Sebastian. 

As if on cue, I heard him say, "Char, **_catch_**!" 

Instinctively, I readied my arms to catch the Quaffle, while hoping whoever was tailing me wouldn't manage to intercept my catch. As soon as I caught it, I let my instincts take over. I had absolutely no idea how many Chasers were near me, but I knew that any second I dwelled too long on that thought was a chance for Ravenclaw to steal the Quaffle from me. I quickly flew to where our hoops were, and I heard Leah in the background telling me, "Don't think, Char, **_GO! FLY TO THE HOOPS!_ ** " She definitely did _not_ need to tell that to me twice. Whatever your Captain told you on the pitch, you _have_ to do. 

Nodding, I quickly dove with my broom to gain momentum, then made a spin. It was the only way to distract the other Chasers, and I could only hope I succeeded with doing that. I then saw that the middle hoop was unoccupied by their Keeper and quickly flung the Quaffle at it. Their Keeper was fast, but my shot was faster, thank _Merlin_. I grinned triumphantly at my second goal. 

"Levana scores yet _another_ goal for Slytherin! Slytherin is still in the lead with 30-10," Satan stated into the microphone. 

I looked over to where my friends were, and I could see them yelling and cheering like crazy. Levi was jumping around happily, waving his sign about, and I could feel my cheeks reddening. Their cheers were infectious, and I couldn't stop smiling. I knew that I'd have to get my head back in the game in a few seconds, but _damn_ , I wanted to savor this moment. It felt _good_. **Life felt good**. But that thought was immediately dismissed when I heard the buzzing sound of the Bludger around the pitch once more. Ah, _shit_. Attempting to calm my increasingly beating heart, I tried focusing instead on where the Quaffle was. 

Possession was with Ravenclaw again, meaning they'd have to pass it first before they could shoot. I had already attempted to tackle the passing Chaser two rounds back, so _maybe I'd have better luck with whoever would be catching and shooting, right_? Flying to the two other Chasers who would potentially catch the Quaffle, I didn't even realize a Bludger had been hit towards my general direction until I heard Levi's voice ringing loud and clear, "CHAR, BLUDGER!" Ah, _fuck_. If I didn't do anything right now, I would be _screwed_. 

I quickly made a dive below and to the left, hoping to all the gods above that I missed the Bludger's nasty aim. Upon turning around to check on where I was previously, I heaved a sigh of relief as the Bludger missed me. Thank _goodness_ Levi gave me that warning, because I would _not_ have thought the Bludger was coming otherwise. I couldn't help but feel touched. I knew Levi wasn't always the most vocal about what he felt, and neither was I, but… actions certainly spoke louder than words, and this was definitely one of those times. 

It wasn't wrong to think or to believe he cared about me, right? I mean… _that had got to count for something_? Hell, I wasn't hallucinating his calling out to me, right? Oh shit, what if I was? _What the hell did it mean to start hearing the voices of someone you liked helping you out in Quidditch games?!_

"We have Williams with a goal for Ravenclaw! The scores are now 30-20, with Slytherin still in the lead," Satan then declared. 

**_Dammit_**. In my distracted state with the Bludger attack (and with Levi-related thoughts in-game again, gah), I totally missed the chance to attack the other team's Chasers. _Come on, Char. You got this. Game now. Game_ **_NOW._ ** _Levi thoughts_ **_LATER_** _. Thinking of him will_ **not** _do you any good right now! Think of him_ **later**! (Which I more than likely would do, game or not, but hey, that wasn't the point.)

It was Rosie who received the Quaffle again, and since I was closest to her, she passed it to me. Trying not to think of my flustered state from Levi saving my ass, and from not being able to help out, I quickly flew to our hoops. Because of how distracted my brain was, however, I wasn't able to notice a Chaser tailing me while I held the Quaffle. I tried flying faster, but she was just as fast as I was. It wouldn't be long before -- **_BUMP_**. As expected, the Chaser began tackling me. She wasn't successful, because I was still holding the Quaffle, but ugh, she was persistent. She attempted to tackle me again, and I tried moving away, but another Chaser was closing in on me from the other side. I was surrounded. 

I heard the whizzing of the Bludger from a distance. Was it aimed at me? I wasn't entirely sure. All I knew was that I was about to be sandwiched by these two Chasers, and I couldn't see where my opening was to pass the Quaffle to somebody else. 

Everything happened way too fast for me to realize what was going on. I faintly heard Levi yell, "BLUDGER!" at me, but I processed it a second too late. There was a loud metal **_BANG_ ** as the Bludger hit me square in the chest. I was almost positive a part of my rib cage was broken. I was too out of breath to even react, and I could already feel my grip on my broom loosening. The blue sky quickly turned black, as I fell to the sounds of my teammates yelling at me in worry, and Leah calling out my name, before I landed on the ground with a loud **_THUD_**.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hellooooo, everybody~! Yes, we're finally BACK! xD We sincerely apologize for the three month wait it took for this chapter to come along. We had the idea for it planned already, and the events that would occur as well, but I didn't consistently have the muse or the inspiration to write sometimes. xD (Apparently, it's hard for my writing brain to write when I still have stuff to think about coding for work, hahaha.)
> 
> ANYWAY, thank you so much for sticking around with us, and we'd love to hear your thoughts! What did you think about the chapter? Was it as action-packed as you'd think a Quidditch match would be? :3 Were the results or the events to your liking? Or do you think something else should have happened? Do you have any speculation as to who Gavin might be seeing in the Slytherin Quidditch team? How about the Cursed Vaults? What do you think we'll find there, and what do you think may occur? Comments are always welcome! <3 It helps us gauge what y'all are thinking and what else we could be doing or adding for all of your enjoyment. ;) 
> 
> Fun fact about the chapter: I was sincerely considering naming it 'Falling' because we all know Char ends up falling from her broom at the end, and it also signifies how much she's 'falling' for Levi. Coincidentally, I'm not sure if any of you noticed, but in the end when she kept thinking about Levi helping her out with the Bludger, it was when her brain went haywire and contributed to the distractedness with the match, eventually leading to her fall. Her fall from her broom and her falling for Levi. I think that just hits the point even further, don't you think? ;) 
> 
> However, I ended up not going for that as the title, because I didn't want the chapter title to reveal what would happen in the end, and I wanted it to be more dramatic that way, hahaha. So for some reason, Mamma Mia's 'Knowing Me, Knowing You' was what I had in mind, and I decided to make a play on that instead, hence 'Bludger Me, Bludger You'. Especially considering Char's Bludger's circumstances. xD 
> 
> ANYWAY, ENOUGH OF MY RAMBLE. Thank y'all again so much for sticking around, and we can't wait to continue sharing with everybody our many many plans for how this series will keep going. Stay tuned, because we'll be back for more. ;)
> 
> ~ BLMB & empurple1113


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